- Shoreline Armoring
- Elevate Land
- Hybrid Shore Protection
- Retreat
- Consequences of Protection
- Sustainability
- Planning Maps
Chapter 6: Shore Protection and Retreat
Shore Protection and Retreat: Techniques
Related Links
U.S. Global Change Research Program
Other EPA-sponsored Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Reports
From
Shore Protection and Retreat by James G. Titus and Michael Craghan (2009), which was chapter 6 of the Bush Administration's
published sea level rise assessment, entitled Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise
Outline of the Chapter
- 6.1 Techniques for Shore Protection and Retreat
- 6.1.1 Shore Protection
- 6.1.2 Retreat
- 6.1.3 Combinations of Shore Protection and Retreat
- 6.2: What factors influence the decision whether to protect or retreat?
- 6.3: What are the environmental consequences of retreat and shore protection?
- 6.4: What are the societal consequences of retreat and shore protection?
- 6.4: How sustainable are retreat and shore protection?
6.1 Techniques for Shore Protection and Retreat
Most of the chapters in this report discuss some aspect of shore protection and retreat. This Section provides an overview of the key concepts and common measures for holding back the sea or facilitating a landward migration of people, property, wetlands, and beaches. Chapter 9 discusses floodproofing and other measures that accommodate rising sea level without necessarily choosing between shore protection and retreat.
6.1.1 Shore Protection
The term “shore protection” generally refers to a class of coastal engineering activities that reduce the risk of flooding, erosion, or inundation of land and structures. The term is somewhat of a misnomer because shore-protection measures protect land and structures immediately inland of the shore rather than the shore itself. (The shore is the land immediately in contact with the water.) Shore-protection structures sometimes eliminate the existing shore, and shore protection does not necessarily mean environmental preservation. This report focuses on shore-protection measures that prevent dry land from being flooded or converted to wetlands or open water.Shore-protection measures can be divided into two categories: shoreline armoring and elevating land surfaces. Shoreline armoring replaces the natural shoreline with an artificial surface, but areas inland of the shore are generally untouched. Elevating land surfaces, by contrast, can maintain the natural character of the shore, but requires rebuilding all vulnerable land. Some methods are hybrids of both approaches. For centuries, people have used both shoreline armoring (Box 6.1) and elevating land surfaces (Box 6.2) to reclaim dry land from the sea. This section discusses how those approaches might be used to prevent a rising sea level from converting dry land to open water. For a comprehensive discussion, see the Coastal Engineering Manual published by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
- For previous reports focused on the implications of rising sea level, go to More Sea Level Rise Reports.