Coast Gateway 3

Question 1

Laws and Regulations

Answer 1

• limit damaging activities
• protect coastal resources
• restrict developments in areas prone to natural hazards

Question 2

Limit damaging activities

Answer 2

1. Damaging activities disrupt functioning of natural environments
2. This includes blasting of coral reefs for coastal development and clearing of mangroves for fish farms development
3. Rather than banning these activities, authorities limit them through alignment of people’s needs and demands together with those of coastal environment

In Port Philip, Melbourne

1. Sand dunes were often trampled on by people visiting the beach
2. Sands dunes were destroyed and leave them exposed to wind erosion
3. Houses behind sand dunes were in danger of being partly buried by large volume of sand blown by wind
4. Authorities fenced off the vegetated dunes and built access paths to the beach

Strength
1. Allows coastal environment to recover

Weakness

1. Fences are unsightly
2. Prevents visitors from accessing all parts of beach

Question 3

Protect coastal resources

Answer 3

1. Prevents coastal resources from being exploited or depleted
2. Fish is one of the coastal resource that should be protected because 90% of all marine fishes are caught in areas near coastline which are vulnerable to overfishing
3. This happens especially in Southeast Asia where destructive fishing methods such as blasting and posion is used

In Wakatobi National Park in Indonesia and in Goat Island Marine Reserve in New Zealand

1. Zones are marked off to prevent commercial fishing, through local management and marine reserves
2. Marine reserves protect marine ecosystems by allowing fishes and endangered species to breed and thrive

Strengths
1. Goat Island Marine Reserve has become a populr tourist destination due to its plentiful fish, with 14 times more snappers within reserve than outside it

Weakness
1. Fishermen strongly oppose to the establishment of marine reserves as they see their access to valuable and major source of food being denied. As they no longer able to fish in an area which supported them for a long time, they would not appreciate the potential long term benefits of marine reserves

Question 4

Restrict developments in areas prone to natural hazards

Answer 4

1. Despite occurrence and unpredictability of natural hazards, people are still attracted to coasts and are still living there
2. This is because coasts provide natural resources such as food, building materials and built services, activities and recreational facilities
3. However, natural hazards such as tsunami can destroy human activities and natural environment

Powerful EQ in Tohoku Japan in March 2011

1. Powrful sea waves swamped large areas of coastal Japan
2. Tsunami caused over 20,000 deaths, destruction of coastal towns and failure of nuclear power stations
3. The cost of rebuilding estimated to be US$300 bil

Strength
1. Authorities have developed management policies to deal with the threats of natural hazards and respond to them. These management policies were developed carefully from research on severity and extent of the problem then plan for it before making and enforcing the law

Strategy 1: retreat or relocation of built structures from areas prone to natural hazards
- the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the USA restricts developments in areas prone to flooding or coastal erosion

Strategy 2: avoidance include regulating development
- indonesian laws restrict new farms and residences from bein established on low lying coastal areas

Strategy 3: installing defence mechanisms
- beaches in Netherlands are closely monitored and undergo beach nourishment when long term erosion is identified

Weakness

1. Construction and maintenance of defence structures are costly
2. People have to be alert and prepared at all times for emergency evacuations

Question 5

Soft engineering methods

Answer 5

• Beach nourishment
• Planting vegetation and stabilising dunes
• Encouraging coral reef growth

Question 6

Beach nourishment

Answer 6

1. Involves using sand from an external source such as sand dredged from the sea floor to replenish a depleted beach

Eg
Beach nourishment restored coast along the Cape May Point in New Jersey USA

Fine sand was used to replenish Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong Beach in Sentosa Singapore to make the beach more aesthetically pleasing

Strength

1. Slows down erosion
2. can successfully change a coast into a wide sandy beach
3. Provide immediate protection to inland area

Weakness

1. Expensive and time consuming to pipe in sand
2. Can develop problems, for example coral reefs in Waikiki Beach in Hawaii are damaged as sand was washed out into the sea and suffocate corals
3. Renourished beach can still be eroded unless other management strategies are put in place

Question 7

Planting vegetation and stabilising dunes

Answer 7

1. Planting vegetation such as mangroves can stabilise shoreline by absorbing wave energy through dense roots

Weakness
2. Vegetation takes a number of years to be established before they can resist natural and human elements (storms and repeated trampling)

3. Stabilising dunes such as by planting grass can reduce erosion as roots of grasses hold sand onto the ground firmly
4. Matting is often placed over the sand dunes and young grasses are planted into sand through matting
5. Overtime, when young grasses are established and dunes are stable, matting rots away and add nutrients to the sand
6. Fences and access paths need to be built to prevent vegetation from being damaged by human traffic

Eg
Coast along the Triton Place in Western Australia
1. Vegetation hold the dunes to the ground
2. Access paths are built to protect vegetated sand dunes

Strength
1. Vegetation can trap wind blown sand, help to build up beach

Weakness

1. Costs incurred from maintenance of fences and paths and replacement of fences with taller ones when sand accumulates overtime
2. Only be successful when people understand the value of planting vegetation and keep to regulations
   - in Sunset Beach in Australia a signboard “you cooperation is required to prevent damage to vegetation. Please use access pathways to the beach”

Question 8

Encouraging coral reef growth

Answer 8

1. Coral reefs weaken wave energy and provide breeding ground and nursery for fish
2. By placing durable materials such as steel and concrete onto sea floor to create artificial reefs, it attracts corals and other marine creatures and vegetation to colonise it so that it functions as natural reefs
3. Coral reefs colonise the sunken ships from world war 2 naturally in waters of Palau in Northern Pacific Ocean

Eg
Since 1996, Maldives has been operating a coral-growing programme to help curb severe beach erosion on its islands
1. In this programme, a structure of welded steel has been placed off the coast of its one of its resort islands of Ihuru
2. The structure is charged with low-voltage solar-generated electricity to speed up coral growth

Strength

1. The project is successful as it has received international recognition
   - corals are found to be growing 3 to 5 times faster than normal
   - island now has a variety of corals and marine creatures

Weakness

1. Sites need to be surveyed to ensure maximum opportunity for growth
   - research and equipment is required and may be costly
2. Coral reef growth is slow, take over 20 to 30 years before results is evident