Coastal erosion

Coastal erosion or ( geological ) Abrasion is the gradually progressive change of the coast due to erosion by the tides and weather conditions such as wind, rain and temperature differences, natural events such as hurricanes or earthquakes, but also by the effects on the environment, as a result of damage to the top soil layers by human impact or climate change.

Coastal erosion is a natural process that happens from time immemorial. The damage to the vegetation by human use makes the coast but more susceptible to the forces of wind and facilitates the penetration of water and related frost damage, as was the case for example with the chalk cliffs on the island of Rügen in winter 2004/2005.

Coastal erosion affects all coastal features. In cliffs cliffs are washed down and break a. Sandy beaches washed away by the waves or eroded by the wind. In general, on coasts with hard rock coastal erosion less effective. On coastal cliffs the rate of erosion also depends on how quickly debris are removed from the water and thus the underlying cliff is unprotected again.

Great damage while pointing to storm surges and tsunamis. Investigations of NOAA revealed that Hurricane Katrina damaged the natural coastal protection of mangroves in the Mississippi Delta. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 has changed a number of islands essential.

According to findings of the European Commission about a fifth of the coastline were affected within the European Union (excluding Bulgaria and Romania) in 2004. Leaders are Poland ( 55.0 per cent) and Cyprus ( 37.8 percent) are least Finland (0.04 percent ), Estonia (2 percent ) and Sweden are affected ( 2.4 percent). In particular, the coasts of Finland and Sweden are characterized by granite cliffs that do not make a very large portion of the coastline virtually erodible.

As a countermeasure, substantial financial resources are put into the coastal protection by dikes, groynes, breakwaters, fascines, or beach nourishment. These also cause specifically in the respective part of the coast, the coastal erosion will slow, but the eroding effects are induced by the change of the flow behavior of the water reinforced in other coastal areas.

Negative consequences of coastal erosion are the loss of areas of high biodiversity or important ecosystems, from agricultural soils and objects, the task of endangered homes on the escarpments, the growing danger for the residents near the coast and damage to natural or artificial coastal protection.

One factor that makes the coasts prone to erosion, the loss of sandy beaches or sandbars, as it is no longer filled by waves and currents weggespülter sand sufficiently by sedimentation. They should be taken either as a building material or lag behind embankments and Absperrbauwerken.