ORE Seminar: Sustainable Hard and Soft Measures for Coastal Protection

January 20, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Zoom Meeting, Please see description for Meeting ID and Passcode Add to Calendar

Any stretch of a coastline warrants protection measure when it experiences an erosion rate beyond a threshold value, and when the seasonal sediment transport/littoral drift changes fail to restore equilibrium. The causes for coastal erosion can either be natural, man-made or a combination of both. The natural causes include extreme storm events, action of waves on the coasts, Sea level rise due to climate change, etc. The man-made causes are often related to developmental activities such construction of ports, fishing harbours, structures for wave and tidal energy converters and tourism development related activities. In the case of short-term erosion problem, the best option could be to wait and watch as the shoreline can regain its original position and only in the event of the stretch of the coast under such a situation needs to be protected due to local demands, mitigation against the problem should be considered. In the case of long-term perennial erosion, protection that could be considered is broadly classified as hard or soft measures. Of these two efforts the later type could be planned for as they are eco-friendly in nature. The artificial beach nourishment has proved to be a great success in protecting the coast. In recent times, application of geo-synthetic products has been quite popular although it has its shortcomings in tropical countries, wherein, its tendency to become brittle when exposed to the UV rays is yet to be solved in total. Plantation proved to be reasonable attenuators during extreme events like tsunamis that occurred in the recent past. In the case of hard measures, the widely adopted structures are seawalls, groin field and offshore detached breakwaters. In general, the topic of coastal/ shore protection has been dealt in detail by several authors as well as provided in guidelines such as Coastal Engineering Manual (2002). Herein, a few of the salient features of the hard measures are discussed. A few case studies along the Indian coast based on both approaches are considered and their performance characteristics are presented, the merits and demerits of both methods are highlighted, followed by steps towards achieving the goal of sustainability in the future are discussed in this paper. Dr. V. Sundar Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India Zoom Meeting ID: 967 0442 9238 Passcode: ORE792


Event Sponsor
Ocean and Resources Engineering, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-7572, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/ore/event/seminar_210120/

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