A morphological study of shingle sediment properties at the inland sea, Gozo

Abstract

The coastline is the zone where coastal processes operate, with both anthropogenic factors and physical features have an effect on the coast, especially beaches, which make them always prone to constant change. The study of beaches can be a complex task. In fact, very few studies have been done regarding the analyses of a beach environment, especially shingle beaches, which unlike sandy beaches, are studied even less. The scope of this dissertation is to find out and analyse, sediment distribution along the different sections of the shingle sinkhole beach. It is a local morphological study, at the sinkhole: “Il-Qawra” or as more commonly known as the Inland Sea, in Gozo. It used to be one whole semi-circular shingle beach, but due to manmade artefacts, such as slipways, it is now divided into eight small shingle sections. However, only seven sections will be relevant to this study. Sediment size, roundness and shape will be the main properties to be analysed and discussed. Along with them, the beach slope profile and statistical parameters of shingle such as the standard deviation will be examined. The results will be all represented through graphs and bar charts, for a better visual understanding. This dissertation takes into consideration various theories and applies the most suitable ones to the research, so that the best methodologies for the data collection procedures are put in practice. The outcome of the research shows clear patterns regarding shingle properties such as shingle roundness which indeed did vary along the beach having different roundness properties at the foreshore and backshore when using a visual comparison chart. Also after using the Spearman Rank correlation statistical test, it was shown that the values of the a-axis and therefore the longest axes did not vary according to the position on the beach since no patterns were found. This shows that a circular beach have different patterns when it comes to sediment distribution unlike linear beaches as seen from different case studies in the literature review.