Erosion and tourism infrastructure in the coastal zone: Problems, consequences and management

Abstract

The importance of coastal zones to the tourism industry and the need to protect such resources is not only vital to the economy of nations but presents a growing dilemma for many localities and regions. Beaches have become synonymous with tourism and with current predictions of climate change and sea level rise; they are under significant threat of erosion worldwide. From an assessment of the effects of erosion, including evaluation of impacts on coastal destinations and tourism development, the consequences for global tourism business are projected. An analysis of hard and soft engineering responses showed that coastal protection measures should be linked to physical processes whilst management strategies included a case study proposal for beach nourishment, in response to the erosion of a tourist beach. Integrated Coastal Zone Management is justified as a tool for managing coastal resources and accommodating increasing pressures from tourism whilst strategies are recommended to ameliorate projected impacts

Macrofaunal community abundance and diversity and talitrid orientation as potential indicators of ecological long-term effects of a sand-dune recovery intervention

“…Two main aspects were highlighted by this study; firstly, the importance of designing long-term monitoring studies when planning interventions on beaches, especially regarding the impacts of relatively recently introduced methodologies (as it is the case for the geotextile containers), which can modify the ecosystem features in unforeseen directions. Environmental restoration has to be planned with a long-term vision, but current practices tend to concentrate on immediate socio-economic benefits and rarely consider the future developments of the impacted ecosystems (McLachlan et al, 2013;Phillips and Jones, 2005). Secondly, there is a need to combine different ecological indicators in order to include the maximum number of possible effects on the biotic ecosystem components, choosing specific sets of indicators for the different phases of the monitoring procedure (Osenberg and Schmitt, 1996).…”

“…Generally, if the interventions were carefully planned, they may represent short-term, pulse disturbance and a rapid ecological recovery may occur after few months, as sandy-beach species are adapted to severe physical disturbances (Hall, 1994). On the other side, hard-engineering interventions often promote erosion by the development of rip currents (Hsu et al, 2007;Martin et al, 2005;Phillips and Jones, 2005), altering the hydrodynamic regimes of the coastal zone, which in turn drive the composition of benthic macrofaunal assemblages (Defeo and McLachlan, 2005;McLachlan and Brown, 2006). Substantial changes to the system ecology were generally observed after these interventions (Brown and McLachlan, 2002;Chapman and Bulleri, 2003;James, 2000;Speybroeck et al, 2006).…”

Coastal infrastructure vulnerability: an integrated assessment model

“…Since three decades several works have been made to establish strategies and procedures for evaluating coastal vulnerability to climate change and other related aspects, accompanied with economics (Cutter et al 2003;Lewsey et al 2004;Vincent 2004;Rygel et al 2006;Phillips and Jones 2006;Hinkel et al 2009;Torresan et al 2012;Addo 2013;Tang et al 2013;Wolters and Kuenzer 2015;Denner et al 2015;Wu et al 2016). A summary of several methodologies established and applied globally is provided here.…”

“…Humans have changed coastal regions by introducing artificial constructions in 2580 BCE on the Red Sea shores in the Egypt (Tallet and Marouard 2014), and these structures affect geomorphology and coastal systems (Bulleri and Chapman 2010) in a negative way; however, this impact severity depends on the particular geographical area. Climate change induced elements such as sealevel rise, coastal flooding, erosion, and storm surge are the main reasons for coastal infrastructure damage as well as vulnerability (Dolan and Walker 2006;Phillips and Jones 2006;Bosello and De Cian 2014). Increased weather events also affect the socio-economic circumstances of coastal regions significantly .…”

Erosion consequences on beach functions along the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean, Spain)

“…However, although there are well-established approaches (e.g. Messner et al 2007;Green et al 2011;FEMA 2013;Penning-Rowsell et al 2013), in many cases they depend on the type of hazard analysed and their implications for the applicable socioeconomic and natural systems. Erosion is a process that can clearly be reflected in a direct impact that results in beach retreat.…”