Coastal management

Coastal management or coastal defence is used throughout the world for many different purposes, but predominantly to reduce coastal erosion and flooding. There are many techniques of coastal management including "hard" and "soft" construction and planning approaches. Hard construction is the more traditional response to erosion and involves the construction of structures which stop wave energy reaching the shore, or absorb and reflect the energy. These have often caused problems themselves, such as increasing erosion elsewhere, and soft construction techniques have become more popular because of this. These techniques involve promoting natural systems such as beaches and salt marshes which protect the coast, and are usually cheaper to construct and maintain than hard construction techniques, and may be self-sustaining