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ABSTRACT
Stive, M.J.F.; de Schipper, M.A.; Luijendijk, A.P.; Aarninkhof, S.G.J.; van Gelder-Maas, C.; van Thiel de Vries, J.S.M.; de Vries, S.; Henriquez, M.; Marx, S., and Ranasinghe, R., 2013. A new alternative to saving our beaches from local sea-level rise: the sand engine. Journal of Coastal Research, 29(5), 1001-1008. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.
A boldly innovative softengineering intervention, comprising an unprecedented 21.5 Mm3 sand nourishment known as the Sand Engine, has recently been implemented in the Netherlands. The Sand Engine nourishment is a pilot project to test the efficacy of local mega-nourishments as a counter measure for the anticipated enhanced coastal recession in the 21st century. The proposed concept, a single mega-nourishment, is expected to be more efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly in the long term than traditional beach and shoreface nourishments presently being used to negate coastal recession. Preliminary numerical model results indicate that this local nourishment will result in the widening of the beach along a 10 to 20 km stretch of the coastline and a beach area gain of 200 ha over a 20-year period. First observations show indeed a redistribution of the sand feeding the adjacent coasts, roughly 40% toward the south and 60% toward the north. While the jury is still out on this globally unique intervention, if proven successful, it may well become a global generic solution for combating sea-level-rise driven coastal recession on open coasts.
ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Nourishment techniques, coastal erosion, coastal protection, concentrated feeder nourishment.
INTRODUCTION
Climate-change-induced and human-induced changes in environmental forcing will pose a significant threat of extensive and/or frequent flooding in deltaic, estuarine, and other low-lying coastal regions in the 21st century and beyond (Gratiot et al., 2008; Houghton et al., 2010; Nicholls et al., 2007; Nicholls et al., 2011; Ranasinghe et al., 2012). As these regions arguably host the world's most productive urban, industrial, and agricultural metropolises, a paradigmshiftin thinking and concrete responses is required to effectively mitigate their increased flood risk. This is what we will address in this contribution, expecting a true debate on the merits of a paradigm shiftas presented here.
A recent Dutch State Committee (also known as the New or 2nd Delta Committee, following the 1953 flooding induced 1st Delta Committee) delivered far-reaching recommendations on...