How We Can Address Erosion and Disappearing Beaches

Photo by One Ocean Foundation

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, around 40% of Americans live in coastal areas. This is no surprise since the beach is a great place to have fun, relax and enjoy the scenery. However, just like any other natural area, beaches are subject to change. A problem that has plagued most coastal regions is the fast rate of erosion.

This problem has been hastened by climate change, prompting stronger and more frequent storms that cause more sand to retreat into the ocean. According to a 2020 study, half of the beaches worldwide will disappear by the end of the century.

There are a couple of solutions to help keep our beaches from being swallowed up by the ocean:

Soft Solutions

Soft solutions don’t require creating synthetic structures in the beach’s ecosystem. They are widely considered more environmentally friendly than hard solutions, but they also tend to be less effective at preventing coastal erosion long-term. Some of the most popular soft solutions include:

• Vegetation

• Nourishment

• Sandbags

Vegetation

One of the most environmentally safe ways of staving off coastal erosion is adding vegetation to the beach. The combination of plant life and the wildlife that inhabit these areas, anchor the sand in place. This was demonstrated by a 2006 study where researchers removed Posidonia oceanica seagrass banquettes from an island, which resulted in sediment loss from the beaches. Preserving these Posidonia oceanica banquettes has been crucial to preventing the losses of coastlines, which plagues many beaches, especially those located on the Mediterranean. Understanding and advocating for their ecological value has been a key part of beach management and destination strategies to ensure that coastlines and their ecosystems continue to thrive.

Nourishment

Nourishment is the action of taking sand from another location on land or from dredging it from underwater and adding it to a beach to replace the eroded sand. Despite being considered a soft solution, there are negative environmental impacts as a result of this practice. Dredging can disrupt marine life since the sand is pulled away from many creatures’ habitats. The trucks dumping the sand onto the beach hurt the ecosystem by running over wildlife and crushing them. The consequences of this practice on ecosystems can last for decades.

Sandbags

While all the solutions mentioned here are temporary, sandbags are considered effective for the smallest amount of time. They are normally made up of eco-friendly material so they don’t disrupt the beach’s ecosystem. Many people will implement sandbags to deter coastal erosion quickly to buy them time while they try to implement a more permanent solution. 

A similar alternative to sandbags is geotubes, which are made up of eco-friendly materials filled with sand. Both sandbags and geotubes disrupt waves hitting the shore, which slows the erosion process for a couple of years.

Hard Solutions

Hard solutions are synthetic structures that are effective for longer periods than soft solutions but at the risk of harming the beach’s ecosystem. The methods most often used include:

• Seawalls

• Breakwaters

• Groins

Seawalls

Seawalls can offer some of the most long-term solutions to coastal erosion, but at the expense of having a beach at all. The sand in front of a seawall will eventually erode while the land behind it will stay put. Installing a seawall also puts other beaches at risk of facing faster erosion rates since the seawall deflects the waves instead of absorbing them.

Breakwaters

Breakwaters are structures built to run parallel to beaches to break up waves crashing on the shore. While these structures can help slow down the effects of erosion at their adjacent locations, they may also cause increased corrosion on other parts of the beach.

Groins

Groins operate similarly to breakwaters, except they run perpendicular to a beach instead of parallel. When installed, they will starve parts of a beach immediately downdrift from it, trapping and adding sand from surrounding beaches. 

Letting Nature Take Its Course

It’s important to note that each of these solutions to coastal erosion is not permanently effective, but only “buys time”. At some point, the combination of natural and climate change-induced decline will force the land to slip away into the ocean unless solutions are comprehensive and the effects from climate change are mitigated.

Author Bio:

Jane is the editor-in-chief and founder of Environment.co. She is passionate about helping people understand the importance of sustainability and actionable steps to live a greener lifestyle.

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