How the Dead Sea helps us understand coastal erosion

Coastal erosion is reshaping our world, threatening homes, industries and culturally important places. By taking advantage of the unique conditions in the Dead Sea and leveraging modern ADCP technology, scientists in Israel have explored how wind-driven waves and currents shape coastlines and transport sediments along shores. The research could help improve the design of boulder-based breakwaters, which are placed offshore all across the world to absorb wave energy and mitigate erosion.

Every year, around 24% of the world’s sandy shoreline erodes, causing significant financial loss from damage to property and infrastructure. With around 40% of the global population living within 100km of a coast, erosion presents a real and immediate challenge. Coastal erosion is a costly affair: in the USA alone, it causes an estimated US$500 million in property loss and damage every year.

The cutting-edge environmental research in Israel took advantage of new technologies and the unique environment of the Dead Sea to better understand the processes behind coastal erosion and sediment transport. As Haggai Eyal, a PhD candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained: “Understanding coastal erosion and the transport and sorting of coarse sediments along shores is highly important for assessing coastal stability.” Eyal was supervised by Prof. Nadav Lensky from the Geological Survey of Israel and Prof. Yehouda Enzel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ideal conditions

Eyal’s PhD focused on the fluvial (relating to rivers) and coastal movements of sediments in the Dead Sea, a hypersaline lake located between Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. The Dead Sea is primarily fed by the Jordan River and does not drain or discharge to the ocean, making it a terminal lake. Sediments from the Jordan River and other channels make their way to the Dead Sea through a variety of sediment transport processes.

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Dead Sea coastal erosion research to protect coastlines worldwide was written for (and can be read in full at) Hydro International.