The Impact of Sea Groins in the Egyptian Side of Rafah on the Erosion of the Beaches of the Southern Area of the Gaza Strip Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

Understanding spatio-temporal changes is essential to many aspects of engineering, geographic and planning researches. The coastal zone is the most important and the most intensively used area compared with the other populated areas in the Gaza Strip. The rapid increase of population on Gaza coastal area leads to depletion of the coastal zone resources and change the coastal morphology. In this research, five Landsat satellite imageries are collected during the period from 2008 to 2016, First, all satellite images are radiometric and atmospherically corrected. Remote Sensing techniques and Geographic Information System are used for spatio-temporal analysis in order to detect changes in the shoreline position and coastal areas of the southern governorates. Results indicate that the net change on the beach area of Rafah Governorate equals to -71 donum during the analysis period, which is equivalent to -8.9 donum/year. The net change on the beach area of Khan Younis Governorate equals to -105.5 donum with the rate of -13.2 donum/year. The analysis of Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) indicates that the net average rate for Rafah’s beach is equal to -3.7 m/year (erosion) and -2.7 m/year for Khan Younis. All of these statistics indicate that the obvious trend in the Southern beach is under serious erosion problem. This study is emphasized that the coastal band is considered as a critical area, it is therefore necessary to move all stakeholders to monitor and protect the southern area of Gaza Strip beach from the risk of drift that threatens vital installations and environmental parameter along the beach, such as streets, hotels, tourism facilities, mosques and houses.