Radhia SOUISSI^1*, Imen TURKI^2,3 & Fouad SOUISSI^1,4
1Institut National de Recherche et d’Analyse Physico-Chimique, Technopôle de Sidi Thabet, 2020 Ariana, Tunisia.
souissiradhia@yahoo.fr
²UMR CNRS 6143 Continental and Coastal Morphodynamics ‘M2C’ University of Rouen, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan
Cedex, France. imen.turki@univ-rouen.fr.
³Environmental Hydraulics Institute IH ‘Cantabria’, University of Cantabria
⁴Université Tunis el Manar, Département de Géologie

EFFECT OF SUBMARINE MORPHOLOGY ON ENVIRONMENT QUALITY: CASE OF MONASTIR BAY (EASTERN TUNISIA)

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The Monastir Bay is characterized by high organic pollution (up to 6% TOC), along the coastal zone and significant eutrophication. Such degradation seems to be strongly related to both characteristics of the supplied water which is rich in organic particles and the submarine morphology showing a flat extending between Khniss and Lamta and a series of shoals and sand bars between Ras Dimass and Kuriates Islands. Results of the hydrodynamics modeling have shown that the submarine morphology of the bay is responsible for the transformation of the waves coming from the open sea (N, E, SE) to the coastal zone, where reduced energy contributes to the concentration of pollution. Wave modeling has also shown that such concentration prevails in low-depth (0 to -3m depth) areas where both surf and breaking zones are almost absent. This case illustrates an example of the Mediterranean coasts vulnerability to pollution under moderate energy conditions.