CHAPTER 10: COASTAL PROCESSES, PATTERNS AND LANDFORMS 10.6 Human interaction with coastal processes
You must study human interaction with river processes OR coastal processes OR mass movement processes
Coastal protection methods
Humans have interacted with marine processes of erosion, deposition and transport. In order to protect the coastline and prevent dangers to shipping, many methods of coastal management are used. These often affect the natural processes of erosion, transport and deposition. Methods used to protect the coast fall into one of two groups: soft methods or hard methods.
Fig. 36 Human activities affect coastal processes.
Soft methods encourage deposition Soft methods are designed to encourage beaches and dunes to form or get bigger. They may trap sediment moving along the coast or deflect waves to redirect the transport of sediment in order to keep harbours free of sediment. Soft methods usually work to strengthen the natural processes already at work in the sea, for example beach and sand-dune formation and longshore drift.
The following structures are built to do this: Fences in sand dunes: encourage build-up of wind-blown sand in dunes Mats:
Beach nourishment: Groynes:
sand is pumped onto a beach to build it up. trap sand
placed in front of dunes trap sand and encourage plant growth
Fig. 37 Beach nourishment in Andalucia in Spain. The sand is pumped onto the shore from the boat in the background.