Week 13: Costal Hazard

 Coastal Hazards in Romania 

Coastal erosion is a growing concern around Europe. The removal of soil and sand by wind, water and human action has left several European coastal areas defenceless against flooding and high tides or extremely high tides, threatening human and marine life.

On the Romanian coast, the entire southern sector of beaches and coastline have been acutely eroded by the construction of ports as well as dams along the Danube to the Black Sea. This has led to the deterioration of “sediment transport,” which is the natural movement of sand and gravel by the water.

A Senior Water Engineer working at the European Investment Bank, which is lending €97 million for co-financing a project together with the European Commission to protect the Romanian Black Sea coast from erosion and floods.

To tackle this issue, the Dobrogea Litoral Water Basin Administration is implementing the second phase of a project phase one was completed in 2017; that will reduce coastal erosion and protect against flooding by adding new sand to beaches, protecting cliffs with strips of stones and concrete, and renovating existing coastal infrastructure to protect over 17 000 hectares of wetlands under Natura 2000 status.

Contractors vacuum up sand from the sea bottom and transports it through a two-kilometre pipeline. They deposit around 18 000 tonnes of wet sand on the beach every four hours. Bulldozers and other machinery then spread the sand out on the beach, until the level inside and outside the water is proportional.

Resources- 

Shoring up against erosion