Shoreline Erosion-

As the name itself suggests the continuous erosion or denudation of the Shoreline due to breaking
of waves on the shore, cyclones and storms is called Shoreline Erosion. It has been reported in the
literature for several decades. It encompasses considerable economic consequences. The rise in
water level is a major cause of the phenomenon, but anthropogenic actions have also played an
important part.

What is Shoreline Engineering?

Traditionally, eroding coastlines have been protected by civil engineering structures ranging from
groins to seawalls. This approach, while providing local relief, has proven to generally transfer the
problem from one geographical site to another. Replenishment of a depleted area by artificial
nourishment, sometimes buttressed by some hard structures, has been tested and shown to help
in rebuilding beaches and countering shore erosion. We employ two major kinds of structures for
Shoreline Engineering-

Coastal groynes/groins: Groynes are finger-like hydraulic structures that jut perpendicularly out of
coastlines. Their primary engineering function is to interrupt or reduce long-shore sediment
transport.This interruption will produce accretion updrift of the groynes and produce concomitant
erosion downdrift of the groynes.

Jetties: Jetties are more massive than groins. Their principal function is to redirect tidal flow to
either protect a beach or a navigation channel. However, construction of jetties results in groin-
like effects by redirecting littoral drift. They are occasionally used to cause sediment bypassing.
Bypassing consists of dredging sand from behind the updrift jetty and conveying it via pipeline to
behind the downdrift jetty.

Stabilisation of dykes: Dykes and related structures typically consist of a general rock fill core and
an outer armour protection for long term design against wave and current attacks.

Coastal revetments/ Seawalls: A revetment is a facial or veneer layer applied to the sloping
surface of soils to prevent their erosion against wave action and currents. Revetments are often
used to protect coastlines. Coastal revetments may be deployed to protect toes of coastal cliffs,
bluffs, dunes, etc, and to fortify coastal embankments and flood levees.

Levees and flood control dykes: Sea levels rise above inland areas due to many reasons. One of
the reasons is tides. Tides result in regular rise and fall in sea levels. Due to global warming, the
mean sea level is expected to gradually rise with time. Flood control dykes or levees are
constructed along estuaries and coastlines to protect flooding of low lying areas.

Estuarial barriers and barrages: Tides cause sea levels to rise and fall in constant cycles. Tidal
effects are experienced in coastal and river delta areas. Estuarial barriers and barrages allow river
discharges while holding back rising sea levels. They are special dam structures that are designed
to hold back the sea during high sea levels while allowing river discharges during normal sea levels.
The primary objective of such structures is usually flood prevention
Coastal breakwaters: Coastal breakwaters are marine structures that have the primary function of
sheltering a coastal development by preventing longshore currents from causing erosion and
reducing wave energies impacting a shoreline. They are connected to the shoreline like groynes
and jetties but differ in function and massiveness. Like groynes and jetties they impact the littoral
functions but coastal breakwaters differ with the additional function of forcing waves to break
offshore.

Offshore breakwaters: Offshore breakwaters are marine structures that have the primary function
of reducing wave energies impacting a shoreline. Offshore breakwaters reduce wave energies by
partially reflecting some wave energy seawards as well as forcing some wave energies to be
expensed through wave breaking on the structure before such destructive waves can reach the
shoreline. Offshsore breakwaters are generally constructed parallel to shorelines.

Gabions and mattresses Attempts have been made to counteract beach erosion, or to encourage
accretion, by using flexible concrete mattresses, or by synthetic seaweed grids. The mattress is laid
upon a slope of appropriate gradient. However, the fill materials must be present in situ, and one
has to cope with corrosion of the metal.

Artificial reefs: The idea has been advanced to use artificial reefs as breakwaters', using both living
and non-living material.

Figure 1: Beach Replenishment

 CASE STUDY-1
SHORELINE ENGINEERING AND BEACH REPLENISHMENT- A CASE STUDY OF
TAMIL NADU

The many causes for the constant degradation of the shoreline near Chennai have been described
below-

a. Along the North Chennai Port the shoreline has been experiencing constant degradation
due to breaking of waves as well as due to several anthropogenic activities which increased
quarter of a century earlier with the construction of Chennai Port.
b. The Cooum River ends in the Bay of Bengal but there is a Sand Bar just at the mouth of the
river which causes choking up of the sediment flow there.
c. Erosion of the shore-line north of Cooum River Mouth and beyond the Chennai Groin Field.

AMOUNT OF EROSION THAT HAS ALREADY OCCURRED-

 The erosion has gone over a distance of about 12 kilometers, and there has been a reported
loss of nearly 500 meters or even slightly more of width of the beach.
 So, many buildings have gone into the ocean along the coast because of this, in spite of
several solutions that where being attempted.
 This problem has been in existence for nearly 5 decades and only recently the more modern
methods of shoreline engineering have been installed
 The Mariana Beach also comes in the vicinity, and it is the second largest beach of the world
with it’s width over half a kilometre. The Mariana Beach is experiencing a positive accretion
of sediments and it’s width is increasing gradually as shown below
 Sand Bar at mouth of River Cooum
A sand bar is found here, closing the river mouth. Once the river mouth is closed what will
happen? Where will the water go? It will not go anywhere. So, it becomes a stagnant pool of water
excellent for breading of mosquitoes, and is a source of constant bad odour for the residents.
Certainly, on the other side the positive this is because of the deposition of sand, but we do not
need the deposition of sand at near the river mouth.

ENGINEERING STRUCTURES INSTALLED

1. Groin (Groyne) fields-
 Several Groin Fields like the Chennai Groin Field have been established perpendicular to
the shore line. They are short, squat structures, jutting out to sea, and are built to
reduce the longshore sediment transport in a certain beach area and capture passing
sand.
 Since the longshore currents move from east to west, groins were built first at the far
western end of the shore to protect that area.
 The field was then gradually extended eastward.
 Additionally, an appropriate quantity of sand must was placed on the eastern side of
each groin--a technique called backfilling, which ensures a continued westward flow of
sediment.

Figure 2: Groyne field at Royapuram

2. Break Waters-
 The Madras Port during 1876 had just been a pier but then during the 1900’s a pair of
Breakwaters were installed at the Eastern Entrance as can be seen in the picture very
clearly. However the establishment of the Breakwaters led to a constant advancement in
the shore line.
 But slowly the advancing shoreline became a very worrying problem because if the
advance of the shoreline continued then it could choke the approach channel. So a
solution was proposed and in the 1920’s an outer key was constructed and the old
entrance was closed and can be seen in the diagram below-

MADRAS PORT: THROUGH TIME

1876: Only a Pier

1900: A pair of Breakwaters

1920: Outer Quay established

 Phases of Construction of Engineering Structures

 RESULTS:

1.

2.
 CASE STUDY-2
SHORELINE ENGINEERING AND BEACH REPLENISHMENT- A CASE STUDY OF
PONDICHERRY

Pondicherry, a Union Territory of India is also one of the foremost ports of the country. It
is however also a great victim of coastal erosion. The relationship between Pondicherry and costal
erosion is pretty old.

The city is protected against the sea by a 1.25 kilometre long Seawall, first completed by the
French in 1735 which reaches a height of about 27 feet above the sea level. The seawall is
protected by rows of granite boulders that are reinforced every year to prevent erosion

Actually Pondicherry does not have a beach currently there is just a rugged coastline full of
boulders. However it was not always so, up till the year 1986 there was a beach in existence at
Pondicherry, but to meet the maritime needs of the country a harbour was constructed south of
the town and that accelerated the disappearance of the beach

But how did this happen? We know that sand is always in motion, constantly being shifted North
and South on the Eastern Coast due to naturally occurring phenomenon called the Long Shore
Drift, which moves sand either North or South depending upon the direction of the waves. Hence,
shifting sand is always replenished. In 1986, a harbour was established along with breakwaters
which obstructed the free flow of the sand drift.
. So while the Southern portion got it’s fair share of sand
the Northern portion could not and consequently the Long Shore Drift scrapped away all the sand
from the Northern portion that lies near Pondicherry.
 ENGINEERING STRUCTURES INSTALLED
General Shoreline Engineering structures like Breakwaters, Groins, Jetties, and Seawalls etc were
also established at Pondicherry so I will not discuss them rather I would like to discuss SAND
BYPASSING a unique engineering technique carried out effectively at Pondicherry-

SAND BYPASSING
Sand Bypassing is the hydraulic or mechanical movement of sand, from an area of accretion
to a downdrift area of erosion for e.g. across a barrier to a natural sand transport such as
large scale harbour or jetty structures. The hydraulic movement may include natural
movement as well as movement caused by man.

Sand Bypassing has been done by two major methods-

1. The Pumping Equipment and Piping is constructed to transfer the sand from the updrift side
of the littoral barrier, and deposit as a slurry of sand and water on the downdrift side
2. Otherwise Dredging or Excavation of surplus Sand from the Updrift side is done by
employing heavy machinery and then it is transported to the Downdrift side either by
Water-Based transport (Dredge) or via Trucks.

While Sand Bypassing has the major advantage of transferring excess sand to depleted areas
thus causing levelling it also removes excess sediment from an area and keeps the Navigational
Channels and Harbour Areas of the excess sedimentation that reduces dredging requirements
Now, again beaches have begun to form near Pondicherry since 2004 after a long break from 1982
all due to the effectiveness of the various Shoreline Engineering techniques mentioned above

Well, these were the two Case Studies regarding Shoreline Engineering from India that I
found intriguing and important both because of their economic as well as geological importance.

Thank You for taking the time to go through this assignment. All refernces have been mentioned
below-

REFERENCES-
1. Application of geotextiles in Coastal Protection and Coastal Engineering Works: An
overview; Mitra Ashis; Visva-Bharati University, Department of Silpa-Sadana, Textile
Section, Sriniketan, Birbhum, WB-731236, INDIA
2. Coastal Protection Measures along few stretches of Indian Coast by Prof V. Sundar,
Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT-Chennai
3. NPTEL series of lectures on Shoreline Engineering
4. ‘Coastal Defense and Beach Renovation’ by Roger H. Charlier & Christian P. De Meyer
HAECON N.V. Deinsesteenweg, 110, B-9810, Ghent, Belgium

SUBMITTED BY-
 Name- Tushar Pande
 Roll No- 1428
 Topic- 2 Case Studies from India related to Shoreline Engineering.
 Course-Intg BSc(H)-MSc Geology, II Year
 Subject- Engineering Geology