Hard engineering
Hard engineering involves the construction of physical structures to protect coasts from erosion. Such structures include seawalls, gabions, breakwaters, groynes and tetrapods.
Effects
Hard engineering can cause unintended environmental consequences, such as new erosion and altered sedimentation patterns, that are detrimental to the immediate human and natural environment or along down-coast locations and habitats.
Examples
Examples of hard engineering include:
- Groynes – Low walls constructed at right angles to retain sediments that might otherwise be removed due to longshore drift. These structures absorb or reduce the energy of the waves and cause materials to be deposited on the updrift side of the groyne facing the longshore drift.
- Seawalls – Seawalls are constructed to protect coastlines against wave attack by absorbing wave energy. Most seawalls are made out of concrete or stone and are built parallel to the coast. They have been constructed in thousands of locations throughout the world.
- Rip-rap/rock armour – Boulders piled up against the coast that absorb the energy of the waves[1]
- Gabions – wire cages filled with rocks to absorb wave energy
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