The Environmental Impact of the Gaza Strip Coastal Constructions

The first major coastal project in the Gaza Strip that followed the signing of the Oslo agreement was the building of a fishing harbor in the city of Gaza (1994-1999) (Figure 1). Current plans call for additional large-scale coastal construction. Yet this coastal construction in the Gaza Strip will interfere with the natural longshore sediment transport toward the Israeli coast. Sedimentological models predict resulting coastal erosion that will extend north of Gaza City to southern Israel. The proposed solution is a beach nourishment and/or a sand bypass system, which would transfer the sand that accumulates south of the coastal construction to the affected areas in the north. A memorandum signed between representatives of the Palestinian Authority and the Government of the State of Israel (2000) seeks to address this problem. In accordance with its terms, the Palestinian Authority is to supply a quantity of 0.35×10⁶ m³/yr of sand to those coastal areas that would be subject to erosion from the sands that accumulate south of the proposed seaport. However, the severe coastal erosion within the Gaza Strip, combined with the sand consumption for building purposes (about 1.5 × 10⁶ m³/yr) raises questions about the Palestinian Authority's ability to fulfill this agreement. The objective of this study is to clarify the impact of coastal construction in Gaza City; first by describing the coastal changes caused by the fishing harbor that was completed in 1998, and second, by predicting the ramifications of future construction, particlularly the much larger-scale project currently under consideration.