Author(s)

SEYED AHMAD NESHAEI, PAYAM ALEMI SAFAVAL, MIR MASOUD KHEIRKHAH ZARKESH, PARASTOO KARIMI

Abstract

Coastal areas are continuously subject to global changing and the interaction of land and sea resulting in the short- and long-term transformation. Study of beach morphology has been one of the most important issues in coastal engineering research projects. Managing and controlling the shoreline changes and behavior are essential for marine projects and integrated coastal zone management policy in such environment. In the present study, based on the available data of Guilan province region, an analysis of the coastal zone behavior is made. Based on extensive research, the bed level changes and submerged area due to a rise in sea level at different locations inside the study area are estimated and compared with those obtained from the satellite images based on remote sensing indicating a good consistency. The results of survey are presented graphically and changes in shorelines are estimated using sensors’ ETM+ and OLI images from 2002 to 2013, which can be used for site selection and design of marine structures and establishing a data base for the sustainable development of the coastal zone in the study region. Laplacian filter is applied to satellite images to establish the shoreline and to clarify the effect of ports and coastal structures constructed in the study region on beach and shoreline morphological changes. This study is a combination of remote sensing and GIS methods with field observations on the ground. The innovation of this work is using Laplacian filters for shoreline detection and estimation of the sediment deposition area by calculating the distance between the observed shorelines. This will lead us to the better understanding of the effect of coastal structures on the beach morphology using satellite images. The results show the remarkable changes occurred in the shoreline due to the environmental and human-based effects during the study period.

Keywords

Caspian Sea, change detection, coastline, GIS, remote sensing, sediment area