http://spinner.cofc.edu/CGOInquiry/human.htm?referrer=webcluster& I know we have enough threads on fixing our beaches, but I found this while researching the local jetties. It is a nice lesson on the ways engineers have been trying to save the beaches, and the consequences of each modification. Hope this is good info for some.
Technically, we do know a great deal, and you can see that in the article. I think the point is that there will always be a consequence for going against nature. The real issue is that the people deciding how to fix things don't seem to understand this. One topic not covered here, due to the research being focused on Folly, is what the pros and cons of an artificial reef would be. I know many of the pros, but only a couple cons. It is good that we have universities studying these topics. I wish my major in college would have been related to geoengineering in the ocean.
Brew Engineer - you might Find Orrin Pilkey's Book "Living with the South Carolina Coast" a good read. Orrin is a professor emeritus at Duke, and i sconsidered by many a national expert on shoreline protection and management, although lately he seems to be more the national critic. He has a VERY strong position against the hardening and general intervention on shorelines. The cool thing about these books (he's writting the "Living With the ...Coasts" series for many states besides South Carolina) is that he goes Town by Town even beach by beach and inlet by inlet for the entire state and summarizes what has been done historically to stabilize the shoreline and the impacts/consequences. There getting pretty old by now so are more of historical interest, but negative impacts are negative impacts...whether they were done this year or 30 years ago. I see Amazon has a few used ones for just a few bucks. http://www.amazon.com/Living-South-Carolina-Coast-Shore/dp/0822318156
hey i got a good idea on how to fix the beaches and save awhole lot of money. NOTHING YOU CANT FIGHT NATURE. AND YOUR AN ASS HOLE IF U THINK YOU CAN. MOVE AWAY FROM THE BEACH AND THEY'ER WONT BE ANY PROBLEM.
No need to get angry. There are ways to live with nature, which humans fail at in many cases. However, it is still worth research in this area. We all know nature is going to beat man, but there may be ways to engineer the beaches to benefit everyone. There doesn't seem to be much money spent on this type of research, but it could benefit us in many ways.
