On the Growing Socioeconomic Vulnerability of Southern Mediterranean Coastal Lagoons

Abstract

Due to pronounced hydroclimatic fluctuations and rapid urban growth, coastal lagoonal systems in the Southern Mediterranean semi-arid areas undergo pronounced shoreline retreats and increased coastal floodings. The socioeconomic impacts of these alarming coastal changes remain poorly uncharacterized. To address this deficiency, we calculate the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI) based on the decadal changes in shoreline retreat and land use occupation considering the study case of the coastal lagoon of Ghar El Melh in Tunisia which is representative of several lagoonal systems in the southern Mediterranean basin. We first monitor the diachronic shoreline changes from 1882 to 2016 using aerial and orbital photogrammetric scenes combined with topographic and bathymetric maps. Using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) and historic bathymetric records, we then measure the changes in shoreline position from 1882 to 2016. Secondly, the above is correlated with the Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) assessment using a supervised classification algorithm from multiple Landsat 5-8 orbital photogrammetric scenes. We assess the SVI using five socioeconomic parameters: (1) population density, (2) land use change, (3) road network, and (4) settlements. Our results reveal the occurrence of severe coastal erosion with a maximum Net Shoreline Movement of −1580 m (±6 m) between 1882 and 2016. Moreover, the changes in land use from 1985 to 2021 reveal the extension in urban growth around the lagoon, rising from 5.4 % to 13.5 %. Whereas the vegetation coverage is decreasing by 9 % over the same period. The resulting SVI map reveals that 85 % of the lagoon area is characterized by high to very high vulnerability. This high coastal vulnerability is found to be primarily due to the extensive change in land occupation over the last few decades and is aggravated by the increase in hydroclimatic extremes.