Hard and Soft Coastal Management Strategies
Method Description Advantages Disadvantages Example
• Very expensive – to build Isle of Sheppey
a sea wall can cost over
• Provide physical barrier to £7,000/month e.g.
flooding • In Dawlish, Devon
• Prevent coastal erosion (2014) the sea wall
Curved structure,
• Can last for many years – carrying the main south
usually made of
around 30-50 years coast railway collapsed,
concrete, that
• Especially beneficial if causing £35 million
Sea Walls dissipates wave
repairs to the wall and
energy and forces there is valuable land (e.g.
hotels, houses) behind track Built in parts of Sheerness (NW Sheppey) in
the wave back out to the 30s, and then strengthened in 1978
• Don’t disadvantage other • Additional cost of repairs
sea following flooding. Much of Sheerness and
areas by impeding • Can spoil the natural
movement of sediment landscape and disrupt Sheppey is below sea level, so is prone to
(unlike groynes) natural habitats. flooding.
• Can take months to
install
Chesil Cove, Dorset
Hard
• Relatively cheap (£110 per • Usually, can only be used
metre) – cheaper than sea at sandy beaches, as
walls, rock armour and shingle can erode them
groynes quicker (sand is finer)
• Easy to construct and • Regular maintenance is
Small boulders are install – uses local pebbles needed as they can be
contained within • Ideal as a quick fix degraded quickly
steel mesh cages solution, ang good value • Repair of vegetated
Gabions which can be joined for money as they can last covered gabions can be
together to form 20-25 years, but the wire expensive
‘walls’ determines how long they • If they are damaged, they On the eastern end of Chesil Beach (where it
last, not the rocks can be dangerous – joins Isle of Portland) there is a history of
• Easier to transport people can trip or cut stormy seas and violent wave action.
• Not as ‘unattractive’ to look themselves on the broken Gabions constructed to enhance current
out, can blend in better wire defences – sea walls and floodgates, to
• Can break during storms protect against flooding.
Method Description Advantages Disadvantages Example
• Very expensive – to build Isle of Sheppey
a sea wall can cost over
• Provide physical barrier to £7,000/month e.g.
flooding • In Dawlish, Devon
• Prevent coastal erosion (2014) the sea wall
Curved structure,
• Can last for many years – carrying the main south
usually made of
around 30-50 years coast railway collapsed,
concrete, that
• Especially beneficial if causing £35 million
Sea Walls dissipates wave
repairs to the wall and
energy and forces there is valuable land (e.g.
hotels, houses) behind track Built in parts of Sheerness (NW Sheppey) in
the wave back out to the 30s, and then strengthened in 1978
• Don’t disadvantage other • Additional cost of repairs
sea following flooding. Much of Sheerness and
areas by impeding • Can spoil the natural
movement of sediment landscape and disrupt Sheppey is below sea level, so is prone to
(unlike groynes) natural habitats. flooding.
• Can take months to
install
Chesil Cove, Dorset
Hard
• Relatively cheap (£110 per • Usually, can only be used
metre) – cheaper than sea at sandy beaches, as
walls, rock armour and shingle can erode them
groynes quicker (sand is finer)
• Easy to construct and • Regular maintenance is
Small boulders are install – uses local pebbles needed as they can be
contained within • Ideal as a quick fix degraded quickly
steel mesh cages solution, ang good value • Repair of vegetated
Gabions which can be joined for money as they can last covered gabions can be
together to form 20-25 years, but the wire expensive
‘walls’ determines how long they • If they are damaged, they On the eastern end of Chesil Beach (where it
last, not the rocks can be dangerous – joins Isle of Portland) there is a history of
• Easier to transport people can trip or cut stormy seas and violent wave action.
• Not as ‘unattractive’ to look themselves on the broken Gabions constructed to enhance current
out, can blend in better wire defences – sea walls and floodgates, to
• Can break during storms protect against flooding.
