Impact of Alexandria Corniche Road Widening on Mediterranean Sea Water Quality, Egypt

Abstract

Background:The Corniche is the main road that runs along Alexandria's coastline. Since 1998, certain developmental activities have been undertaken along this road, aiming at widening it in order to overcome the traffic congestion and to compensate for the erosion of some beaches. Objectives: to assess the impact of such developmental activities on the Mediterranean Sea water quality. Methods: During the period from July 2011 to March 2012, a single water sample was collected monthly during summer and winter seasons from four chosen beaches. Sea water samples were subjected to physical, chemical and microbiological examination. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to determine the variation in sea water quality following Corniche Road Widening Project. Besides, an assessment of the quality of sea water in the selected beaches was carried out by comparing different measured characteristics with national and/or international standards. Results: Results of the study revealed that Corniche Road Widening Project did not cause any statistically significant difference in any physicochemical characteristic of sea water in both Sidi-Bishr and Cleopatra beaches. As for Stanly beach, dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrate increased significantly (to 7.7 ml O 2 /L and 3.9µmole/L respectively) and, in Shatby, DO increased while turbidity and alkalinity decreased significantly. They were found to be 7.7 ml O 2 /L, 0.045 NTU, and 1.6mEq/L respectively. Concerning the biological characteristics of sea water, there was a statistically significant difference in four parameters measured in Shatby beach. With respect to sea water quality, beaches under study were all complying with Egyptian guidelines, WHO and USEPA as regards physicochemical properties. Concerning microbiological quality, all samples were complying with WHO and EPA levels for enterococci except in August. Conclusion:The study recommends the use of best management practices for all construction projects with possible impacts on water bodies, and emphasizes the importance of environmental impact assessment studies and continuous monitoring of sea water quality for public health protection.

Biological responses of white sea bream (Diplodus sargus, Linnaeus 1758) and sardine (Sardine pilchardus, Walbaum 1792) exposed to heavy metal contaminated water

“…For such reason, DO amount in water is considered a good indicator for its quality. In the present study DO level drops below 5 ml O 2 /L only in El-Max bay that may be due to its pollution with different contaminants while in El-Shatby DO level reached 7.5 ml O 2 /L (Hussein et al, 2013). Although trace metals (e.g.…”

“…cadmium, lead and mercury) (Piscopo et al, 2018). Referring to chemical characteristics if metals, trace metals are persistent in environment, as in many cases they just change the chemical state and accumulate in food chain (Llobet et al, 2007;Hussein et al, 2013;Okbah et al, 2016). The concern about accumulation and human health is widely reported (Marti-Cid et al, 2007;Sharma et al, 2014).…”

Physicochemical Characteristics and Eutrophication Condition of Alexandria Beach Water Associated with Corniche Widening

“…The high ammonia concentration reported in the winter season at Shatby can be attributed to wastewater discharge. The concentration of ammonia at the sites where the research was conducted totaled an average of 11.19 μM, is too high if compared with a total average of the western harbor (Nessim, 1995) Alexandria beach waters (Hussein et al, 2013;Dango et al, 2015) and EH (Nessim et al, 2014). Ammonia in Alexandria coastal water is mainly produced from allochthonous origin, derived from the discharge of drainage water.…”

“…Monitoring the environmental quality is of great importance to determine the effectiveness of all the adopted governmental steps and assess if further steps are required to improve the quality of the environment. Although, the study of water quality in Alexandria coastal water has been investigated by numerous workers (Nessim, 1989(Nessim, , 1991(Nessim, , 1995Nessim et al, 2004;Hussein et al, 2013;Dango et al, 2015), the present paper is one of the most important records to evaluate the water quality and eutrophication status of Alexandria coastal water from Abu-Qir to the Eastern Harbor from July 2018 to April 2019. This was achieved by measuring different parameters, such as temperature, salinity, pH-value, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demands (BOD), oxidizable organic matter (OOM) and nutrients, as well as chlorophyll-a as an early biomarker for eutrophication in marine environment.…”