Sedimentological Study for the Monitoring of the Sediment Transport Pattern in the Lagoon of Bizerte (Northern Tunisia)

The aim of this study is to monitor the sediment pattern of the coastal lagoon of Bizerte in order to assess the human/natural effect on the environmental dynamic system. The methodology is based on a sedimentological study associated to Sediment Trend Analysis, STA model (Sunamura and Horikawa 1971) in order to update the grain size distribution of submarine sediment to better understanding the related relationship with hydrodynamic trend as well. A paleontological study was carried out allowing the identification of the micro faunistic changes related to the lagoon properties. The sediment transport model applied to granulometric indexes (Mz, sorting and SKI) reveals a preferential dispersion of a mixture of sedimentary structure along of the coast that converge towards the center of the lagoon, very similar to the hydrodynamic conditions of the lagoon.