Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa

Abstract The arid coasts of North Africa, extending over 4633 km from the Gulf of Tunis to the Nile Delta, are undergoing pronounced shoreline retreats and coastal floodings that are reported as a consequence of the ongoing sea level rise resulting from global warming. Of particular interest are the...

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Autores principales:	Abderraouf Hzami, Essam Heggy, Oula Amrouni, Gil Mahé, Mohamed Maanan, Saâdi Abdeljaouad
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c867c5efce444088bf4b5567e123f518
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c867c5efce444088bf4b5567e123f5182021-12-02T14:16:34ZAlarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa10.1038/s41598-020-77926-x2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c867c5efce444088bf4b5567e123f5182021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77926-xhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The arid coasts of North Africa, extending over 4633 km from the Gulf of Tunis to the Nile Delta, are undergoing pronounced shoreline retreats and coastal floodings that are reported as a consequence of the ongoing sea level rise resulting from global warming. Of particular interest are the abnormal shoreline dynamics for deltaic and sandy beaches, which are severely impacted by abrupt decadal variabilities in both climatic and anthropogenic drivers resulting in their increased vulnerability to disturbances from coastal hazards. Unfortunately, the evolution, distribution and impacts of these drivers remain largely unquantified, let alone understood, for these extensive arid coasts that harbor the major portion of North Africa’s population as well as unique and fragile marine ecosystems. To address this deficiency, we use GIS-based multi-criteria approaches combined with analytic hierarchy process to map the Coastal Vulnerability Index and the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index along these coasts to investigate the amplitude and extent of shoreline deterioration resulting from sudden fluctuations in sediment transport to the coastline. We use the western bay of the Gulf of Tunis, the coasts of Tripoli and the Nile Delta as three validation sites for our vulnerability assessment. The statistical Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index map reveals that 47% of arid North African coasts are characterized by high to very high vulnerability. In particular, we observe that the densely populated deltaic coasts in both Tunisia and Egypt are 70% more vulnerable than any others coast in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. These abnormally high-vulnerability extensive areas are also correlated with significant deterioration of coastal aquifers and hence in crop production, compromising local food security and resulting in increasing outflow migration trends. Both Tunisia and Egypt observed dramatic increases in the net population outflow migration by respectively 62% and 248% between 2000 and 2016, mostly from coastal areas. Our source analysis of the amplitude and extent of these high coastal vulnerabilities suggests that they result from the anthropogenic drivers of damming and rapid urban growth over the last few decades rather than the effects of global warming.Abderraouf HzamiEssam HeggyOula AmrouniGil MahéMohamed MaananSaâdi AbdeljaouadNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-15 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Abderraouf Hzami Essam Heggy Oula Amrouni Gil Mahé Mohamed Maanan Saâdi Abdeljaouad Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
description	Abstract The arid coasts of North Africa, extending over 4633 km from the Gulf of Tunis to the Nile Delta, are undergoing pronounced shoreline retreats and coastal floodings that are reported as a consequence of the ongoing sea level rise resulting from global warming. Of particular interest are the abnormal shoreline dynamics for deltaic and sandy beaches, which are severely impacted by abrupt decadal variabilities in both climatic and anthropogenic drivers resulting in their increased vulnerability to disturbances from coastal hazards. Unfortunately, the evolution, distribution and impacts of these drivers remain largely unquantified, let alone understood, for these extensive arid coasts that harbor the major portion of North Africa’s population as well as unique and fragile marine ecosystems. To address this deficiency, we use GIS-based multi-criteria approaches combined with analytic hierarchy process to map the Coastal Vulnerability Index and the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index along these coasts to investigate the amplitude and extent of shoreline deterioration resulting from sudden fluctuations in sediment transport to the coastline. We use the western bay of the Gulf of Tunis, the coasts of Tripoli and the Nile Delta as three validation sites for our vulnerability assessment. The statistical Integrated Coastal Vulnerability Index map reveals that 47% of arid North African coasts are characterized by high to very high vulnerability. In particular, we observe that the densely populated deltaic coasts in both Tunisia and Egypt are 70% more vulnerable than any others coast in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. These abnormally high-vulnerability extensive areas are also correlated with significant deterioration of coastal aquifers and hence in crop production, compromising local food security and resulting in increasing outflow migration trends. Both Tunisia and Egypt observed dramatic increases in the net population outflow migration by respectively 62% and 248% between 2000 and 2016, mostly from coastal areas. Our source analysis of the amplitude and extent of these high coastal vulnerabilities suggests that they result from the anthropogenic drivers of damming and rapid urban growth over the last few decades rather than the effects of global warming.
format	article
author	Abderraouf Hzami Essam Heggy Oula Amrouni Gil Mahé Mohamed Maanan Saâdi Abdeljaouad
author_facet	Abderraouf Hzami Essam Heggy Oula Amrouni Gil Mahé Mohamed Maanan Saâdi Abdeljaouad
author_sort	Abderraouf Hzami
title	Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
title_short	Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
title_full	Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
title_fullStr	Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
title_full_unstemmed	Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa
title_sort	alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of north africa
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/c867c5efce444088bf4b5567e123f518
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Alarming coastal vulnerability of the deltaic and sandy beaches of North Africa

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