LOW COST SHORE PROTECTION
...A Property Owner's Guide
AN INTRODUCTION TO SHORELINE EROSION
This report is intended for property owners whose land is located on sheltered waters protected
from direct action of open ocean waves. As a reader, you may be personally concerned about some
aspect of shore protection because your house or cottage is threatened by continued erosion or a sandy
beach you once enjoyed has disappeared. Whatever your personal circumstances, it is probably small
comfort to know that your plight is shared by many others.
In trying to solve your problem, you may have sought the advice of others or observed the means
they have used to combat erosion problems. Or, you may have been approached by a local firm trying to
sell either construction services or some shore protection device. While such resources may sometimes
achieve satisfactory results, you and a majority of others are probably reading this because you have been
unable to solve your problems and have suffered substantial capital losses in the process. If such is the
case, then this report is for you.
LOW COST SHORE PROTECTION
In distinguishing between "low cost" and "cheap", one should remember that practically any
method of shore protection, if properly implemented, is expensive. While no specific price range
applicable to all places, or valid for any length of time, can be defined, for our purposes low cost
protection includes those methods within the financial means of most landowners and commensurate
with the value of their property. While personal financial resources and the costs of the methods
described in this report vary significantly, landowners who are serious about protecting their property
should be able to find a suitable (and affordable) solution.
ORIENTATION AND OVERVIEW
Shorelines are areas of unending conflict among the natural forces in wind, water, and land.
Atmospheric disturbances generate winds, which in turn cause waves that move through the, water until
breaking at the shore with a great release of energy. If the shore is composed of loose sediments such as
sands, gravels, or silts, there are washed in the direction of the waves' advance. If replaced by an equal
quantity of beach material moving from other areas, the shore remains stable, a condition described as
"dynamic equilibrium"; constant movement but with no change of volume. However, if less material
replaces what has been washed away, the volume of material in the region decreases and the shore
erodes, leading to the loss of beaches, recession of bluffs, or other dramatic landscape changes at the
water's edge.
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