Coastal land use and shoreline evolution along the Nador lagoon Coast in Morocco

Abstract

The coastal zone, a highly dynamic and complex environment, has important ecological and jurisdictional implications for governments and coastal managers. Based on the CORINE Land Cover classification system, this paper examined the effects of land use and land cover change (LULC) on the coastlines' dynamics along the ∼24 km barrier island of Nador lagoon on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco during a period of 62 years (1954–2016). The study utilized high-resolution orthoimages in the geographic information system (GIS) environment to characterize coastline evolution and LULC changes. The evolution of the coastline was assessed using a GIS tool, in particular the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). The net rates of coastline change were calculated by using statistical methods: the End Point Rate (EPR) and the Linear Regression Rate (LRR). Results concerning the LULC changes showed that agricultural area and beach/dune classes decreased over the entire study period (62 years) by 11.14% and 28.45%, respectively. Urban fabric, shrub, forest, and saltmarsh/peat bog classes increased during the 62 years of evaluation by 2.69%, 19.92%, 16.77%, and 0.19%, respectively. Results regarding coastal analysis indicated that the accretion and erosion processes along the barrier island of the Nador lagoon (∼24km) were observed at 45% (10.6 km) and 55% (12.8 km) of the coastline, respectively. The beaches of Oulad Zehra and Oulad Aissa were characterized by erosion (−0.58 m/yr to −0.57 m/yr respectively), while accretion was observed on the beaches of Boukana and Kariat Arkmane at rates of +2.15 m/yr and +0.82 m/yr, respectively. This study highlighted that natural and anthropogenic processes have a strong influence on the erosion/accretion trends identified along the barrier island of Nador lagoon. The changes in LULC have affected the barrier island of the lagoon in two different forms: (1) a significant spatial conversion due to dune reforestation and (2) a fundamental spatial modification that affects the sea-lagoon connection (inlet) and the construction of new hard engineering structures.

Keywords:

• LULC changes
• human activities
• coastal erosion
• digital shoreline analysis system (DSAS)
• barrier island
• Mediterranean coast

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Bradley Rundquist (Geocarto International, Regional Editor) and two anonymous reviewers for their scientific suggestions and constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions statement

All authors contributed to the study conception. Material preparation, data collection and analysis, were performed by K EK, A B, A M, I B and M M. K EK, B Z, M H and M M verified the analytical methods. The original draft preparation was written by K E.K and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Writing and editing the final manuscript was performed by K EK, M M and I B. All authors approved the final manuscript