Pitfalls of Shoreline Stabilization

With so many cities located on shorelines and tidal estuaries, there are few more urgent topics than this. Taking a global perspective through the lens of case studies from around the world, this book analyzes the problems faced in shoreline stabilization.

At the coast all is not what it seems.  Decades of beachfront development have seen a variety of efforts to stabilize the shoreline to protect ill-placed beachfront property, both from shoreline erosion and from storm damage. Both of these problems become increasingly critical in a time of rising sea level.  Many natural beaches are backed by sea walls, while others have been transformed by whole series of groynes, offshore breakwaters and a plethora of other schemes. Many recreational beaches are actually artificial replicas of the real thing, emplaced to protect badly placed infrastructure and maintained only through ongoing costly beach nourishment.  However, all of these attempts to stabilize the shoreline are far from benign. Degradation and even complete loss of the all important recreational beach sometimes results from seawall emplacement. Increasingly, the choice of shoreline stabilization approach will depend upon plans for future response to rising seas which in many cases may involve retreat from the shoreline rather than holding the line.  This book explores, through a series of case studies from around the globe, the pitfalls of shoreline stabilization and provides a ready reference for those with an interest in shoreline management.  It is particularly timely in a time of global change.

Introduction.- 1. Pitfalls of Shoreline Stabilisation - Tweed River Mouth, Gold Coast, Australia.- 2. Adelaide beach management 1836-2025.- 3. Pitfalls of ebb shoal mining.- 4. Documenting beach loss in front of seawalls in Puerto Rico: pitfalls of engineering a small island-nation shore.- 5. Narratives of shoreline erosion and protection at Shishmaref, Alaska: the anecdotal and the analytical.- 6. Portballintrae Bay, Northern Ireland: 116 years of misplaced management.- 7. Beach Nourishment in the United States.- 8. Failed Coastal stabilization: examples from the KwaZulu-Natal Coast, South Africa.- 9. Presque Isle Breakwaters: successful failures? - 10. Armoring on Eroding Coasts Leads to Beach Narrowing and Loss on Oahu, Hawaii.- 11. Compromising Reef Island Shoreline Dynamics: Legacies of the Engineering Paradigm in the Maldives.- 12. “Alternative” shoreline erosion control devices: a review.- 13. Bad practice in erosion management: the Southern Sicily case study.- 14. The history of shoreline stabilization on the Spanish Costa del Sol.- 15. Coastal defense in NW Portugal: the improbable victory.-16. Stabilizing the Forgotten Shore: Case study from the Delaware Bay.- 17. Shoreline stabilisation: lessons from South Wales.- 18. Coastal Stabilization Practice in France.- Index