What Is Beach Hardening? What Are Three Examples of Techniques

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The Answer is To prevent erosion,individuals build structures to protect communities,a process called beach hardening.Examples of beach hardening include the following: Seawalls stop the erosion threat with riprap or walls built of either timber or concrete at the back of the beach in front of the property.Although a structure may slow the direct wave erosion of a beach cliff for a while,the waves reflect back off the barrier,stir sand to deeper levels,and carry the adjacent beach sand farther offshore.Groins are the barriers built out into the surf to trap sand from migrating.Riprap walls,or jetties,are sometimes used to maintain navigation channels for boat access into bays,lagoons,and marinas.Jetties that border such channels extend out through the beach,but typically require intermittent dredging to keep a channel open.They also block sand migration along the beach.Breakwaters,built offshore and parallel to the shore,have a similar effect down a beach.They collect sand on their upstream sides,causing deposition in the protected area behind the barrier.Although all of these measures can trap sand,they have the unintended effect of reducing the sand that continues along a beach,which causes beach erosion on the down-current side of a barrier.Effectively,they displace erosion sites to adjacent areas.

What Is Beach Hardening? What Are Three Examples of Techniques

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