Coastal Erosion Essay

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Many Caribbean country coastlines are facing rampant coastal erosion. Coastal erosion and accretion has continuously existed and contributed to shaping the present coastlines. Coastal erosion is now largely intensified due to human activities, although engineering structures are aimed at solving erosion problems, it has long been known that these projects can also contribute to creating problems at other nearby locations. Dramatic examples of side effects are presented by Darsan and Alexis (2014), who state that about 20,000 square metres of sand have been removed from the beaches of Trinidad and Tobago by engineering works during 1994 and 2007. Trinidad and Tobago has the highest level of coastal erosion in the Caribbean, with the country losing more than 50,000 square meters of land in less than 20 years.
Conversely, coastal erosion is in fact occurring at varying rates within the region. A formidable combination of climate, geographical and human factors are responsible for troubling rates of coastal erosion in the littorals (the part of the sea that is close to the shore), nowhere is this more evident than on the extremities of Columbus Bay, south- eastern peninsular Trinidad, where it was estimated that 160 metres of coastline was lost in 2002 and further north, at Las Cuevas Bay, where approximately 20 metres of coastline was lost in 2002 due to steady erosion. In addressing the erosion problem a beach profile was conducted by Darsan and Alexis to determine the change in the widths and beach volume of the coastline, additionally a generalized response shoreline model (GENESIS) was applied at Columbus Bay.
Coastlines are some of the most dynamic, high energy ecosystems on Earth (Woodroffe 2002). They are constantly evol...

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...tes (SIDS) beaches. Those most directly at risk from coastal erosion are those living in coastal lowland areas or along ‘soft’ sediment coastlines where coastal erosion can cause flooding, loss of land and damage to infrastructure, affecting both economic and human development of the already vulnerable developing nations. The causes of coastal erosion are mostly dependent on various geomorphological factors and the effects can be severe or slight but all and all it still have implications on the development of any country. Thus there are need for protecting the coast with the use of both hard and soft engineering structures, such as vegetation, groynes and sea walls. Surveying and monitoring of coastal areas helps to gain better understanding of the physical processes involved as well as identifying susceptible locations at an early stage so as to curb erosion.

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