Fighting back against coastal erosion
November 13, 2023 5:54 AM Subscribe
Fighting back against coastal erosion with innovative and environmentally friendly solutions. Residents along Victoria's coast are fighting back against coastal erosion with innovative and environmentally friendly solutions.
What a nice story.
My suburb has a tiny section of its old mangrove / mud flats preserved for sea birds, but it's a couple of hundred metres, with all the rest of the shorefront built up with housing.
If I had my way we'd knock down half those houses and put the people and as many again into mid-rise apartment blocks, ideally in time for the new rail connection.
posted by Audreynachrome at 6:11 AM on November 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
My suburb has a tiny section of its old mangrove / mud flats preserved for sea birds, but it's a couple of hundred metres, with all the rest of the shorefront built up with housing.
If I had my way we'd knock down half those houses and put the people and as many again into mid-rise apartment blocks, ideally in time for the new rail connection.
posted by Audreynachrome at 6:11 AM on November 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
That's hopeful. Making the artificial reef structure out of clean, biodegradable [we guess steel is biodegradable? even if less so that potato starch] material is clearly a win. They've learned from such disasters as Broward Artificial Reef Inc. [MetaPrev] which dumped 2 million old tires off shore from Fort Lauderdale FL in 1974 . . . and spent the next 50 years [not yet] pulling them out again.
Here's a 70 pp. presentation about what our local Wexford CoCo is doing about their coast-loss: not a cage/reef in sight but no car-tires either!
posted by BobTheScientist at 7:34 AM on November 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
Here's a 70 pp. presentation about what our local Wexford CoCo is doing about their coast-loss: not a cage/reef in sight but no car-tires either!
posted by BobTheScientist at 7:34 AM on November 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I really like the look of the Dell Eco reef. It's an interesting blend of naturalistic and constructed. I can see why snorkelers are into it - it looks rewarding to explore.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:58 PM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:58 PM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’m picturing a semi-autonomous robot barge that slowly moves up and down the coast measuring erosion and compensating by squirting out AI-designed printed concrete reef matrices to fit the local mollusk/mussel preferences.
posted by chronkite at 1:03 PM on November 13, 2023
posted by chronkite at 1:03 PM on November 13, 2023
... the best solution would be for people not to build infrastructure on the coast and to move further away from beaches to minimise the impact of erosion.
Obviously, this would have been the best solution all those years ago, but people who have many millions of dollars invested in their beachfront properties aren't likely to agree to have them demolished any time soon. Sea level rises will probably do that for them at some point, turning all those structures into artificial reefs and perhaps slowing or preventing further erosion.
There are plenty of areas where I live that have either mega-mansions or high-rise towers right on the beach and I've always been of the view that nobody should have ever been allowed to build right on the beach - not only because nature will take back what it's created at some point, but the beach is and should remain a public resource and never ever be 'owned' by individuals. The local council is in a seemingly never-ending fight with beachfront residents to stop them from expanding their backyards further out onto the beach, fencing off and landscaping the dunes for their own private enjoyment. There was a huge kerfuffle a few years ago when they stepped up this action, wiping millions off the value of some properties that had been illegally expanded and the current owners often didn't know the land they bought wasn't theirs at all.
The coastline here is very different from the areas in the article, with deep ocean and nothing to stop waves crashing onto the beach with full force. There has been a lot of work done to increase the dune area and plant vegetation that will stabilise it and provide a buffer against storms, but there is constant pushback against the planting of trees because they block the view. Artificial reefs would need to be enormous to have any impact on erosion on an ocean beach and nobody has the funds for that. The idea of increasing the depth and height of dune areas is to allow storms to erode them away while still leaving sufficient buffer to stop houses from falling into the ocean, then nature replenishes the dunes naturally. If we'd stopped people from building right on the beach, this is what would occur naturally.
posted by dg at 1:19 PM on November 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Obviously, this would have been the best solution all those years ago, but people who have many millions of dollars invested in their beachfront properties aren't likely to agree to have them demolished any time soon. Sea level rises will probably do that for them at some point, turning all those structures into artificial reefs and perhaps slowing or preventing further erosion.
There are plenty of areas where I live that have either mega-mansions or high-rise towers right on the beach and I've always been of the view that nobody should have ever been allowed to build right on the beach - not only because nature will take back what it's created at some point, but the beach is and should remain a public resource and never ever be 'owned' by individuals. The local council is in a seemingly never-ending fight with beachfront residents to stop them from expanding their backyards further out onto the beach, fencing off and landscaping the dunes for their own private enjoyment. There was a huge kerfuffle a few years ago when they stepped up this action, wiping millions off the value of some properties that had been illegally expanded and the current owners often didn't know the land they bought wasn't theirs at all.
The coastline here is very different from the areas in the article, with deep ocean and nothing to stop waves crashing onto the beach with full force. There has been a lot of work done to increase the dune area and plant vegetation that will stabilise it and provide a buffer against storms, but there is constant pushback against the planting of trees because they block the view. Artificial reefs would need to be enormous to have any impact on erosion on an ocean beach and nobody has the funds for that. The idea of increasing the depth and height of dune areas is to allow storms to erode them away while still leaving sufficient buffer to stop houses from falling into the ocean, then nature replenishes the dunes naturally. If we'd stopped people from building right on the beach, this is what would occur naturally.
posted by dg at 1:19 PM on November 13, 2023 [4 favorites]
Making the artificial reef structure out of clean, biodegradable [we guess steel is biodegradable? even if less so that potato starch] material is clearly a win
I don't know if biodegradable would be the right term but certainly the right alloys of steel will rust away in a matter of years when submerged in areas like this turning mostly into iron oxide. A reef like this is the best case if you want things to rust away - salt water for ion exchange and wave action to accelerate flaking and disperse oxides.
posted by Mitheral at 1:21 PM on November 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't know if biodegradable would be the right term but certainly the right alloys of steel will rust away in a matter of years when submerged in areas like this turning mostly into iron oxide. A reef like this is the best case if you want things to rust away - salt water for ion exchange and wave action to accelerate flaking and disperse oxides.
posted by Mitheral at 1:21 PM on November 13, 2023 [3 favorites]
I really enjoyed reading about the diverse approaches - but definitely the best part for me was reading that the beach had not only stopped eroding, it had grown.
This is wonderfully encouraging. Thank you so much for posting this!
posted by kristi at 12:32 PM on November 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
This is wonderfully encouraging. Thank you so much for posting this!
posted by kristi at 12:32 PM on November 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
« Older Like samizdat for a sex-positive feminist... | Mastodon is Easy and Fun Except when it isn't Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ocschwar at 6:06 AM on November 13, 2023