C OAS TAL D E FE N S E

Rico Fuentes Jr. BSCE-5

 OBJECTIVES:
OBJECTIVES
 to know what is Coastal defense
 to know the Coastal Management/Construction techniques
- Hard engineering
- Soft engineering
 to know the Five generic strategies are involved in coastal defense
 OVERVIEW
Coastal Defense is the primary role for any structure and although it is not possible to improve
on nature, it is possible to alter the ecological outcomes of a structure to achieve different
ecological endpoints. Coastal defenses, especially multiple structure defense scheme, represent one
very often significant visual impact on the landscape. This is particularly true for emerging shore-
parallel structures that tend to block the view from both land to sea and sea to land. Coastal defense
scheme has many kinds of consequences on the seafront and on its residents. One of the example,
on top of changing erosion patterns and flood risk, a breakwater will change the appearance of the
landscape, offer some recreational opportunities and modify the local biodiversity.
WHAT IS COASTAL DEFENSE?
Coastal Defense is an application for examining how coastal habitats such as oyster reefs, coral
reefs, tidal marshes, mangroves, beach dunes, and seagrass help protect coastal areas by reducing
wave energy hitting the shore. Also coastal structures are frequently constructed to prevent erosion of
coastal landscapes and infrastructures and mitigate the risks to the populations and economic
activities dependent on the coastal zone.
The term Coastal Zone is a region where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs.
Coastal Management, in which the land-sea boundary is protected from flooding and erosion,
categorized as hard engineering and soft engineering.
HARD ENGINEERING METHODS
Hard Engineering can be more expensive, and is sometimes less
durable and be more intrusive than soft engineering. Hard engineering can
also cause issues elsewhere, simply moving the problem along the coast
1. Groins 6. Offshore Breakwater
2. Seawalls 7. Cliff Stabilisation
3. Revetments 8. Entrance Training walls
4. Rock Armour 9. Floodgates
5. Gabions
1. GROINS
 Groins are shore protection structures that decrease erosion affects to the shoreline by
changing offshore current and wave patterns. Groins can be built by materials such as
concrete, stone, steel, or timber and are categorized depend on length, height, and
permeability.
2. SEAWALLS
 This large coastal protection structures can be built using different types of construction materials
such as rubble mound, granite masonry, or reinforced concrete. Seawalls are commonly built and
run along shoreline to prevent the areas from detrimental influence of ocean wave actions and
flooding which are driven by storms. There are various arrangement or configurations that might
be employed includes;

CURVED FACE STEPPED FACE RUBBLE MOUND

SEAWALL SEAWALL SEAWALL
 3.
REVETMENTS
 Revetments are slanted or upright blockades, built parallel to the coast, usually towards the
back of the beach to protect the area beyond. The most basic revetments consist of timber
slants with a possible rock infill. The shoreline is protected by the beach material held
behind the barriers, as the revetments trap some of the material.
4. ROCK ARMOUR
 Rock armour is large rocks placed at the sea edge using local material. This is
generally used to absorb wave energy and hold beach material. Although effective,
this solution is unpopular for aesthetic reasons. Longshore drift is not hindered. Rock
armour has a limited lifespan, is not effective in storm conditions and reduces
recreational values.
5. GABIONS
 Boulders and rocks are wired into mesh cages and placed in front of areas vulnerable to
erosion: sometimes at cliffs edges or at right angles to the beach. When the ocean lands on
the gabion, the water drains through leaving sediment, while the structure absorbs a
moderate amount of wave energy.
6. OFFSHORE
BREAKWATER
 Concrete blocks and/or boulders are sunk offshore to alter wave direction and to filter
wave and tide energy. The waves break further offshore and therefore lose erosive power.
This leads to wider beaches, which further absorb wave energy.
7. CLIFF STABILISATION
 Cliff stabilisation can be accomplished through drainage of excess rainwater of
through terracing, planting and wiring to hold cliffs in place.
8. ENTRANCE TRAINING
WALLS
 Training walls are built to constrain a river or creek as it discharges across a sandy
coastline. The walls stabilize and deepen the channel which benefits navigation, flood
management, river erosion and water quality, but can cause coastal erosion by
interrupting longshore drift. One solution is a sand bypassing system to pump sand
under/around the training walls.
9. FLOODGATES
 Storm surge barriers, or floodgates, were introduced after the North Sea Flood of
1953 and prevent damage from storm surges or any other type of natural disaster that
could harm the area they protect. They are habitually open and allow free passage, but
close under threat of a storm surge.
SOFT ENGINEERING METHODS

Soft engineering can be a more sustainable, long-term and

potentially more cost-effective approach to coastal defense, working
with natural processes to protect the shoreline.
1. Beach Replenishment
2. Dune Stabilization
3. Beach Drainage
 1. BEACH
REPLENISHMENT
 Beach replenishment/nourishment involves importing sand from elsewhere and adding it
to the existing beach. The imported sand should be of a similar quality to the existing
beach material so it can meld with the natural local processes and without adverse effects.
Beach nourishment can be used in combination with groins. The scheme requires repeated
applications on an annual or multi-year cycle.
2. DUNE STABILIZATION
 Stabilizing dunes can help protect beaches by catching windblown sand, increasing
natural beach formation. Dune stabilization/sand dune management employs public
amenities such as car parks, footpaths, Dutch Ladders and boardwalks to reduce
erosion and the removal of sand by humans.
3. BEACH DRAINAGE
 Beach drainage or beach face dewatering lowers the water table locally beneath
the beach face. This causes accretion of sand above the drainage system.
FIVE GENERIC STRATEGIES ARE INVOLVED IN COASTAL
DEFENSE:
1. Abandonment
2. Managed retreat or realignment, which
plans for retreat and adopts engineering
solutions that accommodate natural
processes of adjustment
3. Armoring by constructing seawalls and
other hard structures
4. Construct defenses seaward of the coast
5. Adapting vertically by elevating land and
buildings
REVIEW QUESTIONS

 What is Coastal Defense?

 What are the configuration arrangement of Seawalls?
 What can you say about the increasing commercial and industrial
potential of areas that are near the coast?
 What do you mean about the Coastal Zone?
SUMMARY

Coastal defenses are a key part of coastal management, in which the land-
sea boundary is protected from flooding and erosion, categorized as hard
engineering is used to protect coasts, by absorbing energy of waves, while soft
engineering is a shoreline practice that uses sustainable ecological principles to
restore shoreline stabilization and protect riparian habitat. A coastal zones
accommodate more than 40% of the world’s population. Historically, this is due
to the increased commercial and industrial potential of areas that are near the
coast, such as shipping, fishing and tourism industries.
DEFINITION OF
TERMS
 Coastal – defined as the interface or transition areas between land and sea.
 Coastal Engineering – is a branch of civil engineering concerned with the specific demands posed by constructing at or near the coast.
 Dune – is an amount of sand, hill or ridge of sand that lies behind the part of the beach affected by tides.
 Nourishment – describes a process by which sediment, usually sand, lost through longshore drift or erosion is replaced from other
sources
 Dikes – is a sheet of rock that formed in a fracture in a pre-existing rock body.
 Longshore current – is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast parallel to the shoreline.
 Seaward – the side that faces or is nearer to the sea.
 Offshore – away from or at a distance from the coast.
 Shoreline – is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake.
 Wave Energy – is the transport and capture of energy by ocean surface waves.
 Rubble mound – is used for protection of harbors and beaches against wave action.
 Stepped face – designed to limit wave run up and overtopping.
 Curved face – is designed to enable waves to break to dissipate wave energy and to repel waves back to the sea.
 Erosion – is the action of surface processes such as water flow or winf that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material.