Beach Erosion Essay

Natural disasters are considered harmful in terms of coastal management and can often cause years of work to be wiped out. It can take large amounts of sand from the beach and remove plant life. Collaroy Beach has been a victim of such natural disasters. A large storm back in 1945 caused Collaroy Beach to empty out a large percentage of its sand and damaged many structures. Collaroy Beach’s local council, Warringah Council, has taken action to prevent storm damage in the future. A revetment wall has been established on the sand dunes so waves do not cause as much damage to the dunes behind. Warringah has also purchased properties that were residential and cleared them, so that a storm will not damage as many structures.

It has become common for sand dunes to be bulldozed to improve the views to the sea. However this destroys the natural protection of the coast. Human activities such as water transport also can cause problems for coastal areas. The dredging of navigation channels and the discharging of the material in deep water to enable larger ships to travel though water channels removes sediment from the coastal system leaving the area susceptible to erosion and will also interfere with longshore drift which will prevent the coastal beach landforms from being maintained such as the development of a spit. It is likely that a spit will be eroded and start to regress in conditions such as these.

cruising through those small towns with souvenirs shops to each side, seafood restaurants mixed in and public access trails to the beaches spotted along the route you will notice that the buildings directly on the beach are on stilts.

There are 2 types of beaches. One is erosion dominant and the other is deposition

The prevailing wind that hits the coast is the main concern as it causes long-shore drift, which depletes sand levels at the south of Adelaide's coast. The way to combat this is by implementing groynes into a beach, which has been done at Glenelg and slightly north at the boat ramp. From an economical perspective, groynes are simply expensive to maintain. In the case of the ones along the coast, they are mainly made from large rocks, which means that they do gradually erode and collapse with time. A social impact of groynes would be that they are not pleasing to look at and ruin the recreational value of the beach. Like breakwaters, there are no immediate alternatives to groynes apart from removal. The removal of groynes would instigate more maintainable for the beaches. More work would need to be made in order to keep the sand evenly displaced across the

* The efforts of “Wamberal -Terrigal Beach Protection Group” have been mostly successful. Although a small part of the front dune that was covered in spinifex grass has been lost, the erosion at Wamberal would have been significantly worse.

The more coastal erosion there is, the higher the chance is for saltwater contaminating freshwater resources and the salt from the ocean can cause soil to be uninhabitable to plants (Again this can affect agriculture). Coastal erosion is not only an issue for water resources, it’s also a direct issue for the communities. The communities on islands lay very close to the coast and important infrastructures are one of them. Islands cannot get all of their resources from the local farmers, so they import it via plane or boat. The problem with that is the airports and ports are all on the coast. Coastal erosion has the power to ruin airport runways and docks of the harbors and ports; this means that eventually communities will be starved of basic necessities and there will be no way of getting in basic needs. Not only will airports be ruined, so will our tourism industry. Coastal erosion will eventually ruin the beaches that attract tourists. Island communities depend on the tourism industry because that industry brings in a lot of money every year. Without tourists, communities will struggle financially. Lastly, the ecosystem of the islands will suffer the

Erosion is unfortuanately present at Cronulla beach, the local government have tried to tackle this problem with solution such as dune stabilization and rip rap

Beach nourishment is the physical transfer of sand from an area of excess to where it is being eroded. This often involves dredging and transport of sand by truck or through pipeline. Because of the cost involved, beach nourishment is only used where other strategies prove to be ineffective.

There are many different types of coasts that exist throughout the United States. The south shore of Long Island has a unique types of coast known as a barrier beach. Barrier beaches are long narrow land forms that are composed of sand and other lose sediments. These sediments are brought together by the actions of waves, currents and storm surges. Barrier beaches are subject to constant changes by the same forces. Sand is constantly eroded in one area an deposited in another. Barrier coasts are important for a number of reasons; they protect the mainland of Long Island from the open ocean and flooding during storms, for recreational use and the unique ecosystems which exist on barrier

Humans have adversely affected the South Port sand dunes particularly the biophysical processes occurring in the accretion cycle and on the flora and fauna in the biosphere. People, especially boot campers, are walking or running in the wrong areas causing cliff faces to gradually collapse. There are also people camping in areas that there should not be campers, council has had to remove tents and mattresses as a consequence. (Jock Conlon, 2017)

Many communities are suffering due to coastal erosion. One example is the village of Cocodrie, LA in Terrebonne Parish. This village’s small population and its 220 residential and commercial buildings are surrounded by marshes. In Cocodrie, there is no barrier against hurricanes. Local marinas play host to recreational and commercial fishing, and The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is located in Cocodrie. This facility of around 100,000 square ft houses laboratories, classrooms, and a research center. Infrastructure that will be affected by coastal erosion includes paved highway, dirt roads, a bridge, water supply systems, and natural gas lines. By 2050, Cocodrie will be surrounded by open water as the marshlands around the village give way to rising sea levels. Another community affected by this issue is Yscloskey, LA in St. Bernard Parish. The most important part of the economy here is fishing, and highways link the parish to New Orleans fishing communities. The Yscloskey area lies outside of the protective levees and is quite vulnerable to storms. Though losses in Yscloskey are not predicted to be as great as those in Cocodrie, a 16 percent loss by 2050 leaves the infrastructure of Yscloskey even more vulnerable (Coast 2050, 1998, p. 64-66). Local residents in these areas are watching the land disappear along with the beachfronts and Cyprus swamps that were on that land (Marshall, 2014).

It became clear that if nothing was done, the lighthouse would soon be engulfed by the ocean. Civilian Conservation Corps, under the leadership of the National Park Service, began looking for a solution to save the lighthouse. It was believed that pumping in sand dunes was an inexpensive and effective solution at the time. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps began building a sand dune barrier along Hatteras Island but today’s scientists reason that while the dunes helped with minor storms, they did not stop the rising sea level and beach erosion. Sheet pile groins were also installed to slow down the beach erosion. In 1966 over 300,000 cubic yards of sand was taken from the Pamlico Sound and placed in front of the lighthouse, but the

Some amount of natural erosion is necessary to provide the sediment for beaches in estuaries and coastal bays. However, excessive erosion has occurred in the past due to development. Industrial and private development along the world’s coastlines has increased dramatically since the 1970s (Nepf). Developers and builders completed much of this construction without taking into account the effects of coastal erosion. New buildings were often placed too close to the existing shoreline so that

The coastline is also exposed to strong North/North-East winds, which co-enside with a rather generous fetch. Destructive waves are a result, which erode the beaches and attack the foot of the cliffs, removing masses of clay in suspension, resulting in strong marine erosion. The material eroded and transported elsewhere results in little material left to form beaches, which act as a barrier to protect the cliff line from tides, currents and storms, therefore the sea's processed are able to keep cutting back the cliff line.