The Eilat Airport, which was cleared following the opening of the Ilan Ramon Airport, and the salt pans area, which is slated for clearance and transfer to an area north of the City of Eilat, are being planned as a new urban center for the city.

Soil conditions and complex field conditions that include salt horizons, high water table, a sea buffer to the south and random flooding events constituted a unique engineering challenge.  Therefore, the work focused not only on seismic hazards but instead on a wide variety of challenges deriving from geotechnical and hydrological characteristics and requirements for draining a much larger area than the planning area itself.

These two areas, of 1200 dunams (12 hacters) will include residential buildings, hotels, shopping and open spaces will able urban continuity between the various parts of the city. The plan developer, the Israel Land Authority, is expediting the development plans for these areas through the firm of Naama Malis Architects. Geotope-Levin, together with other consultants in the geotechnical and geophysical field, has been providing geological consultation since 2014. This includes geotechnical investigations designed to characterize the soil cross-section and evaluate seismic hazards in accordance with the provisions of Israeli standard SI 413.

From the geological standpoint, the plan area is a salt pan (mud flats) comprised of soil with a sandy, clayey and silty composition with varying quantities of gravel, stone and salt. The geophysical investigations performed at these sites helped in understanding and identifying fault lines. Suitable guidelines were then formulated for restrictions on construction and for building foundations in a manner that prevents earthquake damage, insofar as possible. Professor Gaztas from Greece, an international expert in the field of engineering buildings to withstand earthquakes, also participated in formulating these guidelines.