Soft coastal engineering

Soft Coastal Engineering Use of long-term, naturalistic tools, including beach nourishment and artificial dunes, to manage coastal areas. 

Generally speaking, however, there are two types of coastal engineering applications hard and soft coastal engineering. Although hard stabilization techniques have been used for many years and are considered to be appropriate under certain circumstances, they can also be expensive and, in trying to rectify human impact, can actually disrupt and... 

Soft Structures and Applications. Shore nourishment has become one of the most common soft coastal engineering applications. The three main types are backshore, beach, and shoreface nourishment. As the name suggests, nourishment is the action of artificially adding sand to the backshore (upper part of the beach), beach, or shoreface (usually the seaside of the bar) in an attempt to modify the effects of erosion. Although nourishment replaces sand in an eroded area and is considered to be a rather natural form of coastal engineering, it does not address the causes or processes of erosion nor does it reduce the impact of wave energy. 

Sand dune stabilization is a relatively basic and common form of soft coastal engineering. It involves the planting of vegetation to stabilize and protect sand dunes along the coastline. The creation of artificial dunes is also considered to be an effective form of soft coast engineering protection, particularly in conjunction with shore nourishment. 

Although the study of coastal erosion is a fundamental concept for coastal engineering, coastal engineers must also recognize and study coastal protection measures and applications such as hard and soft shoreline protection structures, understand the effects of these structures on the morphology of the coastal areas, and develop effective coastal zone management plans and policies. 

Some coastal environments may be regarded as rather stable (rock and reef coasts) while others are more vulnerable (sand and mud coasts, soft cliffs). In this last case, coastal users and managers aU over the world are frequently faced with serious erosion of their sandy coasts. Possible causes of erosion include natural processes (i.e., action of waves, tides, currents, sea level rise, etc.) and sediment deficit due to human impact (i.e., river regulations, sand mining, and coastal engineering works). Countermeasmes for beach erosion control function depend on local conditions of shore and beach, coastal chmate, and sediment transport. Continuous maintenance and improvement of the coasthnes, together with monitoring and studies of coastal processes have yielded considerable experience on various coastal protection measures all over the world. 

Wu Xinting, Nie Zhengxi, Fan Libin, et al. Distribution and Genesis of Soft Clay along High-class Coastal Expressway. Subgrade Engineering, 2012, (6) 66-69 (In Chinese). 

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