The negative impacts of artificial islands on the beach erosion in

the Eastern of Phu Quoc Island

Son Nguyen Huu

University of Technology, VNU-HCMC, Vietnam, E-mail: nguyenhuuson@hcmut.edu.vn
Tin Huynh Trung
Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, VNU-HCMC, Vietnam, E-mail: httinvn@gmail.com
Ngo Dau Van
Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, VNU-HCMC, Vietnam, E-mail: dvanngo@hcmut.edu.vn

Keywords: Phu Quoc, detached structure, beach erosion, computer-based assessment, tourist activities

ABSTRACT: Sea tourism has now become the popular choice for many people for their vacation. To be
well-known as the “Pearl island” in the Southern Vietnam, Phu Quoc has more opportunities to develop
the sea tourist as its natural landscape with beautiful beaches. Since 2013, the number of tourists visiting
Phu Quoc has increased rapidly which leads the increasing the demand on accommodation. This paper
analyses the opportunities and challenges on development of detached structures in the Eastern of Phu
Quoc islands using the computer-based assessment. As results, the artificial structure has a significant
impact on the wave interaction, sediment transport and the beach erosion. Building of the detached
structure in the Eastern results in the severe erosion in the Ham Ninh and Bai Vong beaches with the
calculated rate of 6.0 – 6.5 meter/year. Development of the attractive facilities is necessary to boost the
sea tourism. However, the potential environment impacts should be considered.

1. INTRODUCTION William et al. (1992), has quantified the

Phu Quoc Island, well-known as “Pearl Island”, is
located in the Southern of Vietnam. Having the
coastline of 150 km, Phu Quoc has been becoming
the idea destination for millions of tourist followers
who are interested in the sea landscape. Since
2012, the number of visitors to Phu Quoc has
rocketed and intentionally reached the peak of 1
million of visitor in 2020. To provide the adequate
facilities for tourism, numerous coastal resorts and
hotel was built rackety. There may risk in the
rapidly development of coastal structures which
damages the natural condition, leading the high
potential of natural disasters (Gladstone et al.,
2013)
In this paper, the authors have identified the
possible negative impacts during the construction
of detached structures on the beach erosion.
Chosen study area is in the Eastern beach which is
graphically illustrated in the Figure 1.
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
P. Duc Long and N. T. Dung (eds.) et al., Geotechnics for Sustainable
Infrastructure Development, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 62,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2184-3_179
environmental impacts of the tourism activities on
the coral reef. The negative impacts of the artificial
structure for tourist activities were assessed by
Moussavi et al. (2013). It was shown that, artificial
structure supporting the sea tourist pushed a
pressure on the marine ecosystem. Meanwhile,
Robert (1967) in his research stated that sea
bathing was one of factors taking the sand out from
the sea which may lead the unbalance condition of
the sediment source. Being the most vulnerable
areas threatened by the sea level rise, Phu Quoc is
now facing the negative impacts of the natural
disasters, including: coastal erosion (Bui et al.,
2018); risk of flooding and thunderstorm (Le et al.,
2013; Takagi and Nguyen, 2011). Meanwhile,
increasing of the coastal structure for tourism
rapidly is also the most threatens on the natural
environment. However, lack of integrated
management plan for tourism development could
lead the negative impacts on the vicinity areas (Le
and Lin, 2018).
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Figure 1. Location of studied area
2. CURRENT STATE ON THE TOURIST
DEVELOPMENT
Recently, to satisfy the high demand on tourist
activities, Phu Quoc becomes the “big construction
site” of the hotel and resorts in whole since 2000, it
was recorded that the number of people visiting
this island was surging 10 times. The peak was
gained at 800 thousand of visitor in 2015 (Figure
2). It was predicted that, there would be 1 – 1.2
million visitors by 2020.
Figure 2. Number of visitor to Phu Quoc (2000 – 2015)
The rocket increasing of the number of visitors
has put a pressure on the local infrastructure to
accommodate the crowded. Figure 3 compares the
changes on land use in Phu Quoc between 2009
and 2019. It was witnessing the rapidly increasing
of the housing density on the island. The most
distribution of coastal structure is in the West and
South of the island with numerous hotel and resorts
for the tourism. In the Northern site, the
S. N. Huu et al.
development of sea tourist has been increased
recently. Meanwhile, the Eastern site of the island
compounds of sinuous coastlines, interrupted by
rocky head and mud beaches. The water level is
low which is not suitable for developing of sea
bathing naturally. Therefore, to boost the sea
tourism in Eastern area, the artificial beach is
required.
Figure 4 illustrates the layout of the artificial
structure which called as “eco-tourism project”
locating in nearshore the Eastern of the island. The
detached structure was intentionally to boost the
capability of tourism on the Eastern.
Figure 3. Satellite image captured the shoreline change
at Phu Quoc island (2009 – 2019).
The artificial islands were designed on the
offshore of Ham Ninh beach, covering a sea
surface of 494.8 ha. The aim of the detached
structures is to provide the luxury offshore abodes,
artificial beaches and golf resorts using the
advanced technology and environment-based
design.