restoration of sand dunes pros and cons

The Nature Conservancy Coral Restoration Foundation. Historically, sediment would be driven north by the prevailing south-easterly winds during summer, replenishing Sandy Bay, the cessation of this sediment supply has subsequently resulted in the denuding (pun intended) of Sandy Bay and the engulfment of municipal infrastructures in Hout Bay (Fig 4). A complex interaction between prevailing winds, sediment supply, moisture and vegetation content, and the geomorphology of the nearshore and beach environment determine the size and morphology of coastal dunes (Sloss et al. The waves against the beach causes erosion to occur and sometimes more sand goes out to the water than is deposited by the incoming waves. I did not manage to track down the EIA but find it interesting that, given the issues in Hout Bay, development is still able to occur on sand dunes. . 8. 6. Home » Pros and Cons » 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Deforestation. This is likely to be effective only for small areas. That disruption may continue with ongoing wave pattern changes or other changing shore life patterns which occur. Before the 1990s, even small storms impacted local businesses. You can safely go sunbathing when the beach is present. ... A wide range of grain sizes have been employed in beach and dune restoration projects around the world, ranging from very fine to small gravel (Nordstrom 2008). 24 of 2008: Section 1, Sub-Section 15.2 and Section 2, Sub-Section 16-17. When a beach is wider, it is usable by more people. For a beach replenishment project to be successful, it must use sand that is compatible with what is currently at the beach. It may provide infrastructure benefits to the community. The shocking truth however is lurking beneath the surface of the shifting white sands… until the mid-1980s, Witsands was used by the former Divisional Council of the Cape as a municipal landfill site and the rubbish still in-situ is between three and four metres deep. To see the sprinklers running in a howling south-easter defies logic! The transplant is completed during the fall months when the Marram grass is dormant. Pros and Cons of Beach Jetties. 9. It develops the foundation for a larger, permanent beach in the future. Over time, if tidal surges are repetitively strong, the shore ecosystem could eventually collapse. Efforts to mitigate anthropomorphic impacts on coastal dunes are widespread with both methods and results being dependant on site-specific characteristics and therefore varying greatly. Last year (2016) saw the arrival of a fleet of mine trucks and diggers (Fig 7-9) that proceeded to remove the biological barriers, level the established dunes, translocate the sand to other parts of the area and install netting barriers which lasted about a week and a half before blowing over and littering the beach (Fig 10 & 11). With no excessive urban sprawl encroaching on the immediate surrounding area, this little bay looks to be the epitome of a natural system retaining a high level of functionality. One such example would be Witsand Beach (Fig 5). If a community allows their beach to be eroded away, then the numerous benefits it provides would disappear. The entire removal, transportation, and finalization process creates costs which are not always calculated into the final figures of the project. 2013. 4. Maureen, Thank you Maureen, I’m glad you found it interesting! When new sediments are added to the beach, it may bury marine life. My hypothesis is we could get more dunes forming along the road and what we are doing is recreating a dune field” (Gosling 2013). The work must be completed within a specific time for it to be effective. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. R500K a Year Spent on Dump Site. 5. Marine life is adaptive. Renourishment can protect the public and private structures behind the beach. There is the possibility that most beach replenishment projects just transfer the issue to a different community. In other words, what are the goals for this restoration project? Coastal Dunes: Ecology and Conservation. 17 Important Pros and Cons of Deforestation. The report, "Improved Use and Understanding of This is when beach renourishment occurs. March 24, 2013 March 24, 2013 / By BrigantineNOW. This 100 m reserve does not however prohibit development entirely, it is merely a trigger for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (Ramsaru 2011). financial, environmental, etc.) Beach renourishment supports recreational opportunities. Sand dunes are natural barriers against the powerful waves and windy storms. A suitable site must be found that is easy and safe to access, with permission from the landowner. By creating a wider beach with new sand, it becomes possible to prevent future damage to coastal structures. The expense of this issue is what becomes problematic for many communities. When Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast, it wiped out the beach at Coney Island. Even simple activities, like beach combing, fishing, or metal detecting are unavailable when the beach disappears. There are times when the beach will grow. As in most other eastern South Island sites the dunes were dominated by introduced marram grass, with few indigenous species present. MARTÍNEZ ML & PSUTY NP. So what’s the big deal? Applying this concept to dune restoration begs the question of how far back one is to look for the ultimate naturally functional system and how that system is to be maintained in a severely transformed surrounding environment. Really interesting, Sally – and I’ll bet most property owners in those sensitive areas aren’t aware of the distinction between restoration and stabilisation! During the heavy winter rains; the water from the wetland erodes the dunes, the river scouring out waste-filled channels and spewing the decades-old rubbish into the ocean. Using Panama Beach as an example, 840,000 cubic yards of sand were added to 4 miles of beach at the cost of $14.5 million in 2017. One cannot deny that economic development and tourism work together to support local economies. When beach renourishment occurs before too much damage occurs, it can protect the natural buffer already in place. It is now used around the world as a way to protect shorelines because of the effectiveness of this process. With a budget of R 500 000 per year, the City of Cape Town has managed the site for the past ten years employing methods, such as barriers of felled invasive vegetation and man-made channels, to re-establish the dunes, cover up the site and redirect the river around the waste (Bamford 2016). RAMSARU R. 2011. Marram grass. Property owners at beach locations don’t need to worry as much about the weather report. 1. I find this lack of interest alarming as these sandy hillocks also act as a natural buffer at the ocean/continental interface, one of increasing importance when confronted with climate change and the subsequent rising of sea-levels. Some Beach front condo owners argue that owners of inland property farther away from the beach should pay up to one third of the cost of replacing sand and rebuilding dunes. 2. AVIS AM. Dunes are just hills of sand at the back of the beach. MSc Thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Shifting the baseline to which the current status of the baitfish stocks is compared changes our perception, in this case drastically escalates the situation, and should transform how we assess the success of fishing quotas and equipment restrictions. Beach renourishment offers a meaningful solution for a shoreline which struggles against a strong tide. With a maintenance and management request for wind net placement and installation again going out to tender in early February 2017, the trucks will be back and the landscape once again altered. Most beaches require 1-2 renourishment treatments per decade to reduce the risks of property damage. 1. 1996. high use areas. They’re not a good place to lay out a towel, put up an umbrella or park a car. While removal of the landfill site is out of the question for the City, due to a R 40 million price tag, a more feasible and environmentally-friendly long-term solution needs to be found. The synthetic stabilisation of coastal dunes in the Western Cape Province of South Africa dates back as far as 1845 with the introduction of Australian Acacia species, such as Acacia salinga (Port Jackson) and Acacia cyclops (rooikrans), to the area. Taken in the context of dune restoration, the sole purpose of the wire fence bordering the estate is to keep people off the dunes as opposed to re-establish the dunes, thus focussing on a single aspect of impact rather than taking a holistic view of the system. Preference now is given to the use of indigenous species to stabilise shifting sands, although not without its own suite of detrimental consequences. As a result, dune restoration usually begins with the establishment of pioneer plants. 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Deforestation. Change ). With proper structuring, a beach renourishment project may even reduce the threat of algae blooms along the shore. Natuurmonumenten aims at the restoration of more than 60 ha of grey dunes and white dunes and an increase of about 30 ha in the area of embryonic shifting dunes and humid dune … Beaches do more than provide a buffer against the waves. Seeds were initially sown directly into the sand but in 1875 this method was abandoned in favour of first covering the dunes with refuse, generated by the city’s inhabitants, in order to temporarily stabilise them before the seed-sowing commenced. 5. The climbing-falling dune system of the Valley has been irreversibly altered; the dunes of Fish Hoek Beach were trucked away in the 1920s, the marshlands (now known as the Lake Michelle development) have been reshaped and shrunk, the shifting sands of the corridor have been stabilised by invasive vegetation and obscured by an urban environment. GOSLING M. 2013. Adding sand to the beach does not solve the problem of erosion. points on the pros and cons of using the potential sources of sand investigated for use in dune creation and enhancement at Broad Beach. Pinnacle Port, FL knows all too well the impact of an incomplete beach renourishment project. Before the beach renourishment work occurred along Florida’s coastline, property owners were always listening to the local meteorologist to know when rain would be predicted. Even during strong surges, the sediment reduces the risk of a beach structure suffering a catastrophic incident. Coastal Dunes: Geomorphology. These programs are however required to meet various criteria and the parameters of the restoration need to be clearly defined so as to assess whether or not their goals have been attained. 24 of 2008, Section 2 (16.1 (e))). When a beach replenishment project is complete, it provides a stronger buffer against coastal tidal movements. The use of similar environments as references and the ultimate achievement of restoration introduces a key element to the assessment, that of shifting baselines. ( Log Out /  Most communities today have building codes enforced which require new properties to be a minimum distance away from the shore. Large storms, such as Hurricane Ivan in 2004, will also take large quantities of sand into deeper water, where it is no longer recoverable. Beaches are an effective buffer against the movement of the waves as they impact the shore. It’s crazy when you start to think about it! planted on sand dunes stabilises the dunes and helps to trap sand to build them up. These beaches not only support our local economy and tourism, but they also help protect over $3.5 billion worth of shorefront property and provide critical … Dune restoration may also include establishing vegetation to hold the sand in place. As a short-term disadvantage, however, the loss of a habitat may create devastating results for local life. Beach renourishment will supply new sand to the beach, but it won’t solve the erosion problem. Pros and cons of implementing natural waterfront defenses for climate change in Mid-Atlantic ... dune restoration, and breakwaters. It becomes a payoff between restoring the dunes to a naturally functioning system within an area restricted and impacted by the urban environment and minimising the inconvenience that the shifting sands will have on this urban environment. Success depends on the void to solid ratio of the fence, the availability of blown sand, the frequency of wave attack at the fence and the amount of vegetation available to stabilise the accumulated sand. Breakwaters can be installed to reduce wave strength or create jetties where the sand can be trapped. Another 3.3 million cubic yards were put in place in 2005 and 2006 at a cost of $23.5 million. 4. Beach renourishment is a project which replaces sand (or other sediment) that is lost through erosion, longshore drift, or other reasons. 3. ( Log Out /  The problem is urban development in a coastal dune ecosystem; a situation that cannot be solved by the mere erection of an inadequate fence that’s only accomplishment is that of injuring animals (the wire used is thin and not at all conducive to an environment that facilitates frequent movement of animals between the ocean, the dunes and the pockets of coastal vegetation) and incapable of restoring any form of sand dune. Staghorn and elkhorn coral have become threatened species. The public does not have access to the beach during the renourishment project. The second is that the estate was established in close proximity to the High-Water Mark (HWM) and, under the guise of dune restoration, fences and boardwalks have been constructed on coastal public property but for the exclusive use of estate home-owners (“No Access”, “Private” and “Residents Only” printed on the gates (Fig 14-17)). 7. The Reclamation of Derelict Land and the Ecology of Ecosystems (53-74) in Jordan WR, Gilpin ME & Aber JD (eds); Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to Ecological Research. Then Hurricane Katrina took more sand away as the beach tried to continue its recovery efforts. 1993. Due to the deceptively simple appearance of dune ecosystems, their high ecological importance in terms of their geomorphic dimensions, environmental heterogeneity and high species variability are often disregarded in favour of urban expansion and development (Quick 2006). Only five miles of the project were completed before Hurricane Dennis struck in 2005, washing most of the new sand away. Coral reef restoration of any sort is an important tool to remedy these negative impacts. Vegetation is critical to dune formation and stabilization. Why are dunes being flattened and landscaped for boardwalks when the beach access points, taking the form of the dune with minimal impact, have been in place for decades? In many communities, property lines and HOA easements are drawn relative to the pond shore. Six years before, the city added 1.3 million cubic yards of sand at a cost of $15.7 million. Since the 1920s, beach renourishment projects have occurred here, helping to save the entertainment area from the fiercest storms that have hit the area over the century. The equipment required to bring the sand to the shore, along with the reinforcement structures that are added, can shut down miles of beach all at once. succession to an earlier stage, in order to create suitable conditions for the restoration of these protected habitat types. Although there are coordinating protection structures that can help the beach, the nature of sand is that it will erode with any water movement. Most people don’t need to meet specific educational or work experience requirements to obtain employment in the tourism industry. What protection is provided is often confined to a small area. The use of invasive marram grass and Acacia species presented clear-cut effects on the dune ecosystem; producing dense monotypic stands that acted to crowd out the indigenous vegetation, altering nutrient cycling and the natural dynamics of the system and modifying fire regimes (increasing the frequency and intensity at which the fires burn). Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. For structures that are close to the beach, an eroding shoreline means more sand cliffs by the water, less beach, and the threat of soil removal from the foundation of the building. Beach locations don ’ t need to be effective only for small areas be suitable to save every using. Or work experience requirements to obtain employment in the Cape Province restoration of sand dunes pros and cons South.. Habitat in a predetermined direction ( Saunders et restoration of sand dunes pros and cons... a $ state. 2018 feb 19, 2018 feb 19 restoration of sand dunes pros and cons 2018 feb 19, 2018 19. 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