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Coastal Erosion Solutions – Making it Work

There are a few fundamental rules to follow when addressing coastal erosion: Work with Nature, Plan Carefully, Do No Harm and, my personal favorite: “If It Seems Too Easy, You’re Likely Missing Something”.

A virtuoso musician playing Paganini, or a top athlete breaking a world record, does it thanks to many years of planning, practicing, preparing physically and mentally, analyzing countless details and investing tremendous effort. Excellence often appears easy to onlookers, because we tend to focus on the end result, and not the enormous effort preceding it. Belief and talent alone don’t necessarily predict success.

When dealing with natural forces, lack of planning, incorrect actions and/or bad execution, affects not only the individual, but entire communities, properties, and the quality of life of many people, directly and indirectly.

Coasts are the interface where the energy of the water meets land. It’s a dynamic natural environment, made even more complex by human activity. Selecting, designing, implementing and successfully completing the most suitable solution requires expertise. It’s also important to consider nature’s pace, which can’t be expedited.

The photos below demonstrate several mistakes on the same beach during a 7 year period. Following a design phase in 2018, a minimal nature-friendly solution was implemented parallel to the shore in the shallow water:

February 2018, Credit: Axisima

While the beach was still in the process of forming, the coastal sandbags were replaced by low submerged breakwater. Sand was gradually covering the beach:

April 2020. Credit: Axisima

However, landowners panicked over nature’s slow progress. A contractor dumped rocks into the ocean and built “stone fingers”. No engineering design or particular expertise were used, other than an emphasis on a cheap solution. As a result, the condition of the beach worsened by 2024:

October 2024. Credit: Axisima

Unfortunately, the erosion process gained momentum, especially during the storm season, and the entire beach was lost. Even the original 2018 starting point looks better than the current situation:

February 2025. Credit: Axisima

How Does One Get It Right?

Design: Data related to waves, currents, winds, climate conditions, 100-year estimates, range of influence and more must be collected, analyzed and processed by the designing engineers. It is also important to consider techno-economic considerations, the compatibility of the solution with the lifestyle of the community, the effect of the solution on neighboring coasts, the solution’s feasibility, and finally – how can natural forces be utilized to make the solution sustainable and expedite the process.

Products: Cheap is cheap. If quality is not observed, and the main criteria is price, well, we get what we pay for. Consequences may range from inconvenient implementation onsite, non-compliance with international standards, products that don’t fit their intended purpose, and materials that disintegrate over time, creating problems and/or causing pollutions. Conversely, higher quality more than compensates for the higher price and may make the difference between success and failure.

Execution & Completion: Continuing the musical theme, a good work site is like a well-played symphony by a well-conducted orchestra. Time is money, especially in projects of such magnitude. The importance of expertise and experience of contractors (preferable local), supplier support and professional project management cannot be over-emphasized.

The following example shows a beach that was eroded due to a wrong design/installation of geotextile tubes, applying a contained “box” structure, maximizing intervention and over-modifying natural littoral dynamics:

Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2008. Credit: Axisima

After thorough analysis and modelling, the previous tubes were removed, and a different design was applied in 2014. This is the same beach today. Imagine relaxing in one of those beach chairs with a chilly mojito, with a beautiful view of the ocean…

Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2014. Credit: Axisima

In our upcoming posts, we will address various types of solutions for coastal erosion, including advanced technologies and methods that can often solve coastal erosion effectively and economically.

This is the third post in our series on Coastal Erosion. We invite you to follow us on LinkedIn.