Environmental impacts of shore-parallel breakwaters along Nagahama and Ohgata, District of Joetsu, Japan

A combination of sedimentological analysis of beach sands, field surveys and the assessment of the empirical methods for the breakwater design is used to investigate the impacts of offshore breakwaters on beach morphology along Nagahama and Ohgata. The results indicate that the nearshore sedimentation has been substantially disrupted due to the features formed behind the breakwaters stopping littoral transport, which led to sediment accretion on the updrift side of the breakwaters, and erosion on their downdrift side. Sedimentological analysis of beach sands made it possible to recognize the dominant process at the sections considered. In fact, the occurrence of strong offshore-going currents, the removal of finer mean grain size and the predominance of high-density heavy minerals led us to deduce that the two sections undergo a natural sedimentary imbalance.     

Sustainable Management for the Eastern Mediterranean Coast of Turkey

The objective of this article is to propose a program for the integrated coastal zone management that is required to stimulate and guide sustainable development of the Mediterranean coastal zone of Turkey. Improved data collection, quality control, analysis, and data management will provide a firm basis for future scientific understanding of the East Mediterranean coast of Turkey and will support long-term management. Various innovative procedures were proposed for a promising ecosystem-based approach to manage coastal wetlands in the Mediterranean: remote data acquisition with new technologies; environmental quality monitoring program that will provide a baseline for monitoring; linking a Geographic Information System (GIS) with natural resource management decision routines in the context of operational wetlands, fisheries, tourism management system; environmental sensitivity analysis to ensure that permitted developments are environmentally sustainable; and use of natural species to restore the wetlands and coastal dunes and sustain the system processes. The proposed management scheme will benefit the scientific community in the Mediterranean and the management/planning community in Eastern Turkey.