How can beach erosion be stopped?

Answer 1

Coastal erosion can be minimised by adding 'groynes' that break up waves and stop them from reaching soft rock. Groynes can be made up of wooden slits in the sand that stop the waves slightly, or by rock walls either on the beach or out in the water. Massive wind breaks can also be constructed to stop the wind wearing the rock away.

Answer 2

There are a number of different ways in which you could potentially prevent gravity-related erosion, but you could also take measures to prevent damage from the erosion too. To prevent the erosion in the first place, you could anchor the ground/boulders in place. In addition, you could totally remove particularly difficult boulders or overhangs, although this is more expensive. Prevention is always more expensive than protection.

To protect property from mass movement (landslide etc.), if the property is on top of the precarious rock, you can only anchor the rock, else move the property away (again, expensive). Another measure could be to build a large support structure, to mount dirt up by it, perhaps. To protect a property, or any communications or buildings for that matter, you can take a number of measures. The first is the most popular: a simple fence or wall built into the mountainside/ rock face. This is a cheap and quick solution. Another popular option is a ditch, but this is regularly difficult because the ditch must be dug into the rock, which is hard.

Other options include adding concrete structures into the rock to strengthen it, removing unconsolidated sediment (soil) from the rock face or top rock surface, and strengthening the buildings themselves. In the case of a road, you could also build a shelter as you would for an avalanche. Furthermore, it is important to monitor the earthquake activity in the area, so that one can be predicted.

Answer 3

Erosion can be temporarily prevented from unnatural causes. One example is building jetties so water doesn't erode sand. Jetties can also ruin beaches by collecting sand from the water that needs to be brought back to beaches.

Answer 4

It is impossible to stop erosion completely, but you can slow it down for a period of time. There are several types of erosion including wind, water and chemical. Each type needs to be treated differently.

With wind erosion, the key is to reduce the amount of force that the moving air can impart to the soil surface. One technique of doing this is to establish a windbreak. The windbreak can be planted trees, a solid or semi-solid fence or a soil berm (kind of like an inverted trench). The windbreak is set up perpendicular to the direction of the prevailing wind direction. For example, if the wind usually comes from the South, the windbreak needs to run East to West. This disperses the force of the wind, protecting the soil that is upwind of the windbreak for a certain distance. The taller the windbreak, the wider the area of soil that it can protect.

Another technique is to plant grasses and other plants with extensive root systems in the soil. Or, you can cover the soil with things like wood chips, mulched leaves and rocks that are larger than 1" in diameter (smaller rocks will just blow away eventually). These techniques cover the soil surface and deflect most of the force of the wind. There is still wind erosion occurring, but it is minute compared to what takes place on bare soil.

As a very temporary measure, you can spray water on the soil to keep it from blowing. An even better approach is to spray something called hydromulch which is a mixture of water and ground paper. Sometimes hydromulch also contains seeds and fertilizer so that grass and/or vines can provide more permanent cover later on. Wind erosion relies on being able to lift soil particles into the air. Wet soil weights more than dry so it takes much more force to lift particles of it.

The other main source of erosion is water power. The best way to reduce water erosion, is to plant grasses, vines and other plants with extensive root systems. You can also cover the surface with rocks as above, only you need to pile on a thicker layer of rock so that the water does not just go under the rocks and wash the soil out from under them. I have seen water with enough force (such as in a storm drain or creek) carry rocks the size of a small car several miles downstream in one strong storm event.

Another technique that works well is to build up berms called terraces. Terraces are dug into the surface of the soil and arranged so that they run perpendicular to the slope of the land. If the slope is a North facing slope, for example, the terraces will run east to west. It is also important to calculate the percent of the slope and to know what type of soil you are working with (sandy, clay, loam, silt etc) so that you know how far apart to place the terraces. It's also good to know what the strongest possible rainstorm event could be in your area. Places that get more rain than others need wider and taller terraces to carry all that water. The steeper the slope and the weaker the soil, the closer the terraces need to be spaced. The terraces run across the slope, but they also have a bit of a slope to them as well. In other words one end of the terrace is higher up the hill than the other end. This way, the water will run down the terrace and over to a grassed or rock covered waterway. Otherwise, it will just fill with water and overflow.

The last main source of erosion is chemical. This is caused partially by water but the main thing doing the actual erosion are the salts and acids that are dissolved in the water. A perfect example of chemical erosion is a limestone cave. Limestone caves are open spaces underground where some of the limestone has been dissolved by acidic water. You can see how this works in your kitchen at home. Take some baking soda and mix a bit of fresh water with it so that you can pack it down into a lump. Then, pour a bit of vinegar on the lump. You'll see bubbles fizz up. If you do this enough, you'll see the lump seem to vanish. What is happening is that the acid in the vinegar is changing some of the carbon in the baking soda into carbon dioxide gas (the bubbles). Limestone is made up from fossilized coral and shells. The acid breaks down the stuff that these coral and shells are made from in a similar way to how it breaks down the baking soda.

There is very little that can be done to prevent or reduce chemical erosion. The main thing is to realize that it can happen and to avoid building anything on an area where this type of erosion is likely to be happening. Failure to take chemical erosion into consideration is responsible for a lot of the stories you hear about people's homes falling into sinkholes in places like southern Florida.

Another good source: Link below.

Answer 5

Planting vegetation is the most common and cost effective. Other methods includes construct or create wind breakers and apply mulch to retain moisture and also help prevent soil erosion, apply mulch to help soil retain.

Answer 6

It can't stopped, but it can be delayed by building jettis and barriers.
There is no real way to stop beach erosion. Beach erosion comes from the water cycles in the bodies of water.

Answer 7

You stand up and say STOP You bad wave? Idunno figure it out on your own :):)

Answer 8

Plant trees. Fast growing ones mixed with slow growing. Keep stock off!!

Answer 9

sea walls gibieons rip rap and groynes

also beach nourishment and cliff drainage

Answer 10

jump