Antalya’s iconic beach suffers from fast erosion

Ceren Deniz – ANTALYA

World-famous Konyaaltı beach in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya has lost nearly 10,000 square meters of soil in the last 10 months due to erosion, an expert has warned.

Sand and stone quarries on the Boğaçayı stream, which flows from the Taurus Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea, have changed the sedimentation regime, said a report by Nihat Dipova, a geotechnics professor from Akdeniz University.

A recreational project to create a pond near the shore also had adverse effects on the 7.5-kilometer-long Blue Flag beach.

“The sand and gravel requirement of the shore was provided by the Boğaçayı streambed for long years. The erosion on the shore between 1934 and 2016 was measured as approximately 50 meters. During the 10 months in which the Boğaçayı recreational project has been implemented, the total amount of lost beach soil was 9,748 meters. The maximum retreat of the shoreline was 19 meters,” said the report.