What strategies are employed to protect coastal areas from rising seas?

Strategies to protect coastal areas from rising seas include hard engineering, soft engineering, and managed retreat.

Hard engineering involves the construction of physical structures to reduce the impact of rising sea levels. This includes sea walls, which are built to prevent the sea from reaching certain areas. These walls are often made of concrete and are designed to reflect wave energy back into the sea, reducing the risk of coastal erosion and flooding. Groynes are another form of hard engineering. These are barriers built at right angles to the beach to prevent the movement of sediment along the coast. By trapping sediment, groynes help to build up the beach, providing a natural barrier against sea level rise. Other hard engineering strategies include flood barriers and tidal barriers, which are used to control the flow of water and prevent flooding.

Soft engineering, on the other hand, works with the natural environment to protect the coast. This includes beach nourishment, where sand is added to the beach to replace what has been lost to erosion. This not only helps to protect the coast, but also maintains the beach for recreational use. Dune stabilisation is another soft engineering strategy, where vegetation is planted to stabilise sand dunes, providing a natural barrier against sea level rise. Managed realignment is also considered a form of soft engineering, where the coastline is allowed to move naturally, with human intervention only to manage the process.

Managed retreat is a strategy where areas of the coast are allowed to flood in a controlled way. This is often used in areas where the cost of protecting the coast is too high, or where the land is of low value. The idea is to allow nature to take its course, with human intervention only to manage the process. This can involve moving people and infrastructure away from the coast, and creating new habitats for wildlife to replace those lost to sea level rise.

In conclusion, a combination of hard engineering, soft engineering, and managed retreat can be used to protect coastal areas from rising seas. The choice of strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including the nature of the coast, the value of the land, and the available resources.