Vassiliki Loukaidi

The foreseeable acceleration of global sea level rise could potentially pose a major threat to the natural charm and functional integrity of the world-renowned tourist coastal attractions of Rhodes Island, as a result of the anticipated increasing frequency of flooding and erosion events. Hence, this study aims to determine the most vulnerable segments (in terms of physical impact) of the Rhodes coastline through the widely accepted coastal vulnerability index (CVI), applying a combination of well-known, broadly used approaches and methods. The frequency distribution of the current CVI along the island’s coastline suggests a rather worrying high to very high vulnerability of 40%. In addition, a CVI projection to the end of the 21st century (based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predictive scenarios) indicates an enhancement of the total vulnerability by 48%, mainly focused on the majority of the western coastline. Hence, a considerable number of popular coastal destinations in the island shall remain under unignorable threat and, therefore, coastal managers and decision-makers need to hatch an integrated plan to minimize economic and natural losses, private property damage and tourism infrastructure deterioration from flooding and erosion episodes, which will most likely be intensified in the future.

Shoreline evolution and seabed morphology changes depend on coastal geomorphology as well as hydrodynamics of the nearshore region. Τhis study investigates the morphological evolution of the northernmost headland of Rhodes Island, Greece, using a method that combines historical shoreline evolution analysis and numerical modelling of coastal processes. The satellite and aerial imagery analysis under a GIS platform reveals that, since 1982, the overall surface area of the backshore has slightly increased, though in shorter period times, large variations have been identified. The part of the beach that is most prone to extreme changes is the spit-like formation at the tip of the headland. Wind-generated waves and induced currents are the main forcing factors that affect the shape and orientation of the spit-like beach. This spit-like morphology changes seasonally due to variations in the dominant wave regime. West sector waves cause sediment deposition at the eastern sector of the spit-like formation, whereas strong southeast wave events during the winter favor accretion at the west sector, inducing an asymmetrical shape. Thus, the analysis results indicate an annual balance in sediment transport.