A comparitive study of beach morphology between urban and rural environments : case studies : Għajn Tuffieħa and Balluta beaches

Abstract

The coasts of the Maltese Islands are very important especially in the economic and development sectors, thus coasts are very susceptible to anthropogenic influences leaving only a few beaches that are not yet fully developed. The aim for this dissertation was to see how natural and anthropogenic activities affected the beach morphology over a period of six.- month period. Consequently two different beaches: one situated in a rural environment (Ghajn Tuff:ieha Beach) and the other situated in an urban environment (Balluta Beach) were monitored every week. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study. The quantitative method consisted in obtaining the weather conditions of everyday. Moreover the rate of erosion and movement of the selected pebbles together with the wave height and wave frequency were taken every week. On the other hand, belt transects using 1 m quadrat and slope gradients using a clinometer were taken every month. The qualitative research method consisted in analysing various aerial photos and satellite images. From the data obtained it was observed that the urban beach is more prone to erosion than the rural beach. This is mostly due to the anthropogenic influence which is constantly influencing the beach both directly and indirectly. Moreover, the urban beach does not follow the pattern of a summer profile (low-angle beach) and winter profile (high-angle beach) like that of Ghajn Tuffieha beach. In fact, it resulted that the beach in Balluta is very dynamic and does not have an identifiable pattern but it changes according to the weather and wave energy prevailing at the time irrespective of the season.