17 km of Sochi Coastline Needs Urgent Reinforcement
Researchers are conducting a comprehensive study of Sochi«s coastline to address erosion.
Mayor of Sochi Andrei Proshunin said at a press conference marking two years in office that about 17 km of the resort«s coastline requires urgent bank protection. Winds and storms lead to coastal degradation. This was discovered during joint work between the administration and the Research Center »Morskie Berega« (Sea Coasts), which is preparing a scientific study for a comprehensive analysis of the sea coast.
«The comprehensive development program for Sochi, approved by the Russian government, includes measures for bank protection, engineering infrastructure, construction of social facilities and new road infrastructure facilities,» the mayor said.
Proshunin noted that the strategic task of the city authorities is to expand beach areas. The coastline in Sochi is about 96 km long. 56 km are not used; swimming is prohibited there due to erosion of the coastline, reduction of beaches, lack of access roads, as well as the unsuitable geographic location of beaches and landslide processes.
Proshunin believes that Sochi needs to develop a general scheme for bank protection of the resort, like those that existed in Soviet times and operated until the 1980s.
«A Scientific Council has started working in the city, which includes heads and researchers from Sochi universities and scientific institutions of the resort. The first meeting was dedicated to issues of bank protection and marine hydraulic structures. We also appealed to the government with an initiative to create a separate working group at the federal level,» Andrei Proshunin concluded.
