Main Port of Karpathos Island

Karpathos, the second largest Island of the Dodecanese, is one of the promising touristic destinations of southeast Aegean Sea, with the main orientation axes to be alternative and folklore tourism. Taking all the above into account, together with the routing of larger ferries for the maritime connection of Karpathos, revealed the operational inadequacy of existing port infrastructure in Pigadia which cannot meet with current and future maritime needs. Thus, in 2009, the Prefecture of South Aegean held a contest and awarded CNWAY the design of supplementary works as an extension of the existing facilities and in order to upgrade them.

An integral part of the general review of the new layout design was the sediment transport study. The first task that took place was the identification of the coastal area that included, among others, the sampling and sieve analysis of seabed material in order to determine its grain size. These actions were followed by the preparation and implementation of the sediment transport simulation along the coastline, so as to “imprint” its shape, before and after the presence of the new works, as well as the checking of the sedimentation of proposed dredging area.

The sediment transport study and the results of the simulation showed that the new works do not affect the already formed coastal equilibrium of the area and there is not any need to change the proposed layout. In addition, there is no remarkable sedimentation tendency of the proposed dredging area.

Study facts:

• Estimation of offshore wave characteristics using JONSEY model from Seaworks marine software suite
• Simulation of coastal sediment transport using the TMS (Telemac-Mascaret System) numerical model suite. TMS is based on internal coupling of individual models of wave propagation (TOMAWAC), wave induced currents (TELEMAC2D) and sediment transport (SISYPHE)
• Mesh dimension 2,8x3,3km, 17,900 nodes and 32,000 elements
• Implementation of simulation for two layouts (existing and new)
• One year simulation time, 4 wind directions, all wind intensities above and including 3bf