Author(s)

G Polychronidou, K Liolios & B S Tselentis

Abstract

Marina development and environmental impact assessment requirements - the case of Lefkada Marina G. Polychronidou, K. Liolios & B.S. Tselentis Department of Maritime Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece Abstract Increased tourist trade and pleasure boat activities in the Ionian Sea have led to new constructions and expansion of existing marina facilities. The site selected for marina development on the island of Lefkada is near the main town, on location \“Alykes”. This shallow and protected area was not maintained after the closure of the salt work activities and the area was flooded by sea water, creating an ecosystem characterized by high primary production and depths not exceeding 70 cm and as shallow as 20 cm. Salt work activities, as well as materials used for recent land fill efforts, have increased concern about the physicochemical characteristics of the seabed sediments and dumped land fill soil. Marina development dictated extensive dredging in order to obtain operating depths for pleasure boats ranging from 4 to 8.5 meters. Previous studies performed as required by the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures in order to obtain planning and construction permits, described in great detail environmental indicators of the marine and coastal pre-construction environment. Dredged materials were also analyzed in order to assess the quality and therefore the management/disposal strategies in order to avoid the dispersal of potentially contaminated sediments. The paper presents and compares the environmental data obtained before and after marina construction, the objective being to quality review the Environmental Impact Assessment process and investigate the degree to which a linear system such as an EIA is adopted and applied to a dynamic environment such as a marina. Based on these findings, conclusions and proposals as to how the EIA process might, more effectively, highlight and therefore mitigate significant environmental impacts due to marina construction and dredging are made.

Keywords