MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE BAYS BETWEEN ŞİLE AND KEFKEN (TÜRKİYE) IN TERMS OF COASTAL GEOMORPHOLOGY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/IJGI260422016UKeywords:
bay classification, morphometric analysis, coastal geomorphology, Black Sea coastAbstract
The morphometric characteristics of bays affected by geological and geomorphological processes provide information about the formation and development of coasts and their hydrodynamic functioning. This study examined the morphometric characteristics of bays between Şile and Kefken along Türkiye's Black Sea coast and developed a new bay classification model (BCm) as a systematic framework based on a comprehensive set of morphometric indicators. Satellite imagery, orthophotos, and topographic maps were used to determine bay boundaries and basic morphometric parameters in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment. For each bay, shoreline length, coast width, maximum indentation, bay area, bay beach shoreline, bay beach area, and maximum bay beach indentation were measured. Five different morphometric indices were calculated based on the basic parameters: The Planform Index (Ip) of the bays, Embayment Morphometric Parameter (γe), Embayed Sinuosity Rate (Si), Circularity Rate Index (Rc), and the Bay Filling Index (Bfi). Additionally, five indices datasets were normalized to the range (0, 1), and their averages were used to establish the BCm. The average indentation of 142 bays identified between Şile and Kefken is 122.6 m, their width is 210.7 m, their shoreline length is 453.9 m, and their beach indentation is 21.8 m. The fact that the largest bay is approximately 3,889 times larger than the smallest bay demonstrates the high level of morphological diversity. BCmresults revealed that 40% of the bays exhibited low circularity open-type features, while 19.1% exhibited high indentation and sinuosity closed-type features.
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