New Evidence for Sand Transport Direction Along the Coastline of Israel

Abstract

Beach accretion and erosion developed along the Israeli coastline following coastal structures construction may provide evidence for the direction of the littoral drift. Long-term changes (30-40 years) in the position of the coastline are the indicators of this drift. Methodological improvements involving: selection of the best period for coastline monitoring, enhancement of the shoreline appearance in scanned aerial photography and the increase in the precision of the photographs' geo-referencing procedures increased the accuracy of the detection of these changes. Historical aerial photography for the years between 1951 and 1990 of two sites along the Israeli coastline were processed. The results provided new evidence for the relative contribution of littoral drifts with north to south and south to north directions in determining the coastline position in different locations along the Israeli coast. Evidence is provided for the location of the nodal point in this region.