Coastal Management

Hard and soft engineering

Hard engineering involves building artificial structures that aim to prevent erosion. The structures are usually at the base of a cliff or on the beach. They effectively prevent erosion in the desired area, but they are expensive and have a significant environmental impact due to the use of concrete and other artificial materials. In addition, reducing erosion in one area of the coastline may exacerbate erosion elsewhere. Therefore, their only impact is to change where erosion is occurring.

Soft engineering aims to work with and complement the physical environment by using natural coastal defence methods. They manage but do not necessarily prevent erosion. Soft engineering uses ecological principles and practices, which have less of a negative impact on the natural environment. As a result, it is less expensive to implement and maintain and creates more long-term and sustainable solutions than hard engineering projects.

The table below shows the common types of hard engineering.

And here are some common types of soft engineering.

In general

• Hard engineering can be expensive, and it disrupts the natural process.

• Soft engineering is a more sustainable management strategy than hard engineering because it has a lower environmental impact and economic cost.

Governance approaches

Approximately two-thirds of the world’s population live within a few kilometres of the coast. However, they increasingly face a threat from rising global sea levels, although there is uncertainty about the scale and timing of the rise. There is an increased frequency of storms and the possibility of increased erosion and flooding. Given its importance, careful consideration needs to be given to managing the coastline to ensure that its resources are utilised wisely while preserving its natural beauty and processes.

Therefore, coastal management must be sustainable. In other words, the strategies should not cause too much damage to the environment, people’s homes and livelihood and shouldn’t cost too much.

To achieve this, the following are taken into consideration:

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

This takes place before any coastal management takes place. The anticipated cost of the coastal management plan is compared to the expected benefits of a scheme. These may include the value of land, homes and businesses that will be protected. Cost and benefits may be tangible (monetary value) or intangible (other effects such as visual impact). For a CBA, the expected benefits must outweigh the costs for a project to go ahead.

Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs)

An SMP has been created for each sediment cell in the UK to help with coastline management.

Each SMP identifies all the natural and human activities that occur within the coastline area of each sediment cell. The sediment cells are closed for the purposes of management, although there will be some exchanges between the different sediment cells.

Four ways of managing coastlines are:

Fig. 9 - SMPs decide the best course of action for coastlines.

Sustainable Integrated Approach (SIA)

As the negative impacts of many shoreline management plans (SMP) have become evident, sustainable integrated approaches are becoming more widely used. These are holistic strategies; it is recognised that all the different sections of the coastline are interlinked and function together as a whole. Smaller areas are not considered separately, unlike traditional methods.

Managing the coast sustainably includes:

• Managing natural resources like fish, water, farmland to ensure long term productivity.
• New employment for people who face unemployment because of protection measures.
• Educating communities about the need to adapt and protect the coastline for future generations.
• Monitoring coastal changes and then using adaptation or mitigation to respond to the observed differences.
• Ensure consideration is given to everybody when changes are proposed and then adopted.

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)

This is another method of sustainable coastline management. This is where all coastline elements (land, water, people, and the economy) are managed with one integrated strategy. Its aims are:

• Protect the coastal zone in a relatively natural state whilst allowing people to use it and develop it in different ways.
• Local, regional, and national levels of authority must work and manage coasts together.
• It recognises the importance of the coast for people’s livelihoods.
• That coastal management must be sustainable, whereby economic development is essential but is not prioritised over the protection of the coastal environment.
• It must involve all stakeholders, plan for the long term, and work with the natural processes and not against them.
• It recognises that sediment eroded in one location may form a protective beach elsewhere. Therefore a decision to protect one coastal community may not outweigh the disadvantages of exposing another community to increased erosion.
• It is a dynamic strategy where decisions are re-evaluated if the environment or demands on the area change.

Coastal management involves decisions that will affect peoples lives. These effects can be positive or negative. However, it inevitably means that it will divide stakeholders into two groups.

• Winners – people who have gained from the decision which have been made either economically (property saved) or environmentally (habitats conserved), or socially (communities).
• Losers – people who have not had their property saved or see the coastline being “concreted over” through defensive measures, which they see as a negative environmental impact.

Fortunately, the UK has frameworks in place for dealing with coastal management. Sadly, the most vulnerable people and coastlines are the losers in less developed countries as they have no way of claiming compensation or there is no coastal management approach in place.