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The geographical evolution of Haifa Bay and Zevulun Plain, Israel, from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene, is based on detailed analysis of drilled cores. At the beginning of the Holocene the Bay area was still under terrestrial conditions. Only about 9500 to 9000 cal. yr BP, when sea level rose to about 35 Á 30 m below present sea level (b.s.l.), did Nile-derived sand start to bypass the Carmel headland and Haifa Bay come into existence as a morphological feature. Between 8000 and 7150 cal. yr BP, when sea level was 14 Á10 m b.s.l., the invading sea crossed the present-day coastline. At about 6800 to 6600 cal. yr BP sea level rose to about 5 m b.s.l. and flooded the Zevulun Plain up to 2 km inland, and the River Qishon estuary up to 4 km inland. It is still unknown exactly when the sea reached its maximum penetration inland but later, about 4000 years ago, the coastline in the research area was still east of the present-day coast, up to 3 km in the Zevulun Plain and 4.8 km in the River Qishon estuary. When the coastline started to retreat westward, the reclamation was followed by intensive deposition of shallow marine sand and aeolian dunes, while to the east, different wetland conditions developed. The archaeological data indicate that during the Early Bronze Age I and Early Bronze Age II, dated to between 5600 and 4700 cal. yr BP, and even later, during the Middle Bronze Age II period, about 4600 to 3500 cal. yr BP, the coastline was still east of the presentday coast, but it never actually reached the bases of most of the tells, as has been suggested, except for Tel Akko

A common belief is that, unlike today, ancient urban areas developed in a sustainable way within the environmental limits of local natural resources and the ecosystem's capacity to respond. This long-held paradigm is based on a weak knowledge of the processes underpinning the emergence of urban life and the rise of an urban-adapted environment in and beyond city boundaries. Here, we report a 6000-year record of environmental changes around the port city of Akko (Acre), Israel, to analyse ecological processes and patterns stemming from the emergence and growth of urban life. We show that early urban development deeply transformed pre-existing ecosystems, swiftly leading to an urban environment already governed by its own ecological rules and this, since the emergence of the cities.

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Research indicates that the aeolianite (Kurkar) cliffs along the Israeli Mediterranean coastline have continuously retreated eastward during the last few decades. There seems to be no dispute among Earth scientists regarding the general trend of cliff retreat. However the majority of papers displaying cliff retreat rates are based upon comparison of aerial photographs. Their lack of advanced geometric measurement methods causes a high margin of error. Public attention is focused upon the Beit-Yannay coastal cliff since private homes are located along the southern section of the cliff crest. The current research compares the historic location of the cliff crest edge at Beit-Yannay as observed in a series of aerial photographs taken during the period 1918-2000. Quantitative measurement methods included applications of satellite geodesy and digital photogrammetry and mapping. Research results offer quantitative, consecutive and highly accurate data regarding retreat rates over a relatively long period of 82 years. It is concluded that: 1. Annual average cliff retreat rates of the cliff crest is 20 cm/year. 2. Categorization of the study time span reveals periods displaying varying retreat rates such as 27 cm/year during 21

Porat, N., Sivan, D., and Zviely, D. 2008. Late Holocene embayment infill and shoreline migration, the Haifa Bay, Eastern Mediterranean. Isr. J. Earth Sci. 57: 21-31.In the early Holocene sea-level rise caused transgression into the Haifa Bay, as in many bays and river mouths in the Eastern Mediterranean basin. Approximately 4,000 yr ago the sea reached its maximum transgression in the Zevulun Valley Plain, the eastern and terrestrial part of Haifa Bay, and the area was subjected to shallow marine and coastal sedimentation. Later, the coastline migrated to the west and the shallow marine sands were covered by coastal dunes. Across the Zevulun Valley Plain the top of these marine sands is within ± 1 m of present-day sea level. To provide a temporal framework for the establishment of the current sea level and the deposition of the aeolian and marine sands, a borehole was drilled 1,700 m inland, at 7.75 m asl, and eight samples were dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Sandy sediments comprise the entire borehole length (14.5 m). The transition from coarser shallow marine and coastal sand with mollusk fragments to the overlying finer coastal dunes is at a borehole depth of 7.5 to 8 m (0 ± 0.25 m asl). Quartz single-aliquot OSL ages range from 2,400 ± 110 yr at 3.0 m borehole depth to 4,150 ± 170 yr at 11.2 m depth. The transition from coastal to aeolian deposits took place about 3,650 yr ago, implying that within 0.5-1 m, sea level was then similar to the modern level. The chronology of the two sandy phases of the Zevulun Valley Plain has enabled the tracking of the shifting coastlines since 4,000 yr. The ages also have a bearing on our understanding of human occupation in these coastal areas and provide a reliable index point for the local sea-level curve.