A survey of soft approach coastal defence methods

The coast is not a permanent line to be drawn on a map, but a dynamic environment in which land and sea are constantly interacting (eroding and accreting) in response to external factors, both natural and anthropogenic in origin, and acting on a whole range of time scales. By using output from research programs, we now have a more complete understanding of how coastal processes operate, and how processes operating on one part of the coast may be closely linked to the behavior of adjacent beaches is respect of sediment supply and sediment movement. The coastline is generally a highly populated area, both in respect of high resident numbers, and a large transient population who visit during the summer as tourists. Estimates from Goldberg(1994) state that 50 percent of the world’s population lives within 1km of the coastal zone, a figure expected to increase by 1.5 percent by 2010. Given this population it is not surprising that many coastal areas are highly developed and, thus have an associated high land value. In such situation, it is imperative that the development is protected from the sea; soft form of defense structure is an obvious solution to the protection of seas.

کلیدواژه ها:

Coastline ، Soft Coastal defense ، Beach nourishment ، Dune building ، Sedimentation increscent