Possibilities for Mitigating Coastal Erosion in the Downdrift Zone of Port Jetties Using Nearshore Nourishment: A Case Study of Klaipėda Port, Lithuania
2025
Gintautas Žilinskas | Rasa Janušaitė | Darius Jarmalavičius | Laurynas Jukna | Donatas Pupienis
Coastal erosion hotspots frequently emerge in the downdrift zones of ports situated along open littoral drift seashores, often necessitating coastal protection measures. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of nearshore nourishment in mitigating coastal erosion using the downdrift zone of the Klaipėda Port (Baltic Sea) as a case study. In 2022, 79,390 m<sup>3</sup> of sand was discharged at 2.0–3.5 depths at this site, forming an artificial sandbar parallel to the shoreline. The dynamics of the nourishment deposits were monitored for two years through beach and nearshore morphometric measurements and beach sand lithological composition sampling. Monitoring data indicated that the majority of the sand from the artificial sandbar migrated towards the subaerial coast, with minor depth variations also observed at depths of 4.0–5.6 m. Minor accretion in the nearshore was observed in regions beyond the designated nourishment area. The nearshore nourishment has successfully stabilised the subaerial coast at the discharge site for over two years, with 21.1% of the nourished sand accumulating on the subaerial coast and the shoreline position advancing seaward by an average of 10 metres. About 69.4% of the nourished sand remained at the nourishment site between the shoreline and the offshore boundary of the artificial sandbar, while approximately 9.5% was transported to the adjacent coast beyond the nourishment area.
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