IMPACT OF KLAIPEDA PORT JETTIES RECONSTRUCTION ON ADJACENT SEA COAST DYNAMICS

During the reconstruction of 2001-2002, the Klaipeda port jetties were lengthened (the northern jetty by 205 m and the southern by 278 m). These works produced an impact on dynamic coastal processes in the neighbourhood of the port. The evaluation of the impact of jetties reconstruction was based on the data obtained in 1995-2010 during the monitoring of coastal dynamics in the port of Klaipeda. Study area includes 10 km coastal strip of mainland and 12 km coastal strip of Curonian Spit The analysis of the data concerning the changes in the annual amount of coastal sediment served as a basis to evaluate the impact of Klaipeda port jetties on the trends in coastal dynamics prevailing before the reconstruction and their changes after it. It was found that in the mainland coastal stretch closest to the jetties, where in the last decade before jetties extension the seashore was relatively stable, the coastal erosion trends were dominant Meanwhile, the closest to the jetties coastal stretch of the Curonion Spit, where erosion processes dominated in the last decade before jetties extension, stabilized right after the reconstruction and with a passage of time sediment accumulation trends have become prevailing.