Soft engineering = involves adapting and learning to live with the coast , works in sympathy with nature
● Less expensive
● Less effective
Beach nourishment:
● Beach nourishment = broad term for the replacement of lost sediment
○ Nourished beach → fewer waves reach the back of the beach
○ More wave energy is absorbed /dissipated by beach → rate of erosion is reduced
● Techniques to nourish beaches:
○ Beach recharge
○ Beach recycling
→ Beach recharge:
● Beach recharge = sediment is taken away from a bay and placed on a beach that is losing sand
○ eg/ happens every summer at Pevensey (East Sussex)
■ LSD removes 20,000 cm 3 of beach sediment every year
● Dredger collects shingle from seabed
● On high tide → dredger comes out twice daily to pump out the sand
○ eg/ Sandbanks Poole (Dorset) → recharge takes place every 10 years
● Bulldozers are used to spread out sand/sediment
→ Beach recycling:
● Beach recycling = removal of sand from a down-drift area which is building up sand and returning it up-drift
○ eg/ Seaford (East Suffolk) → trucks move around 100,000 cm 3 of shingle twice every year
Beach reprofiling:
● Beach reprofiling = artificial re-shaping of a
beach using existing beach material
○ In winter: beach is lowered by
destructive waves
○ After winter storms: bulldozers move
shingle back up the beach
● Similar to beach nourishment
● Reprofiling ensures that beach is large
enough to be an effective buffer between
land and sea
Sand dune regeneration:
● Sand dune regeneration = artificial creation
of new sand dunes /restoration if existing
dunes
● Act as physical barriers between land and
sea
● Absorb wave energy and water
● Protect land from the sea
● Growth of marram grass → stabilize
storm-damaged dunes when planted on
their eroded windward side
