Shoreline Defenses

Abstract

Owing to urbanization, or to prevent climate change-related flooding and erosion, the world’s natural coastlines are being increasingly replaced by man-made hard structures such as seawalls. Given that large proportions of the shoreline in many coastal cities are already artificial, and that these structures cannot realistically be removed, there is now a growing interest to engineer new and existing structures in a more ecologically sensitive manner. In this chapter, we (1) introduce the historical context and functions of artificial coastal structures, (2) highlight their present-day global extent and ecological impacts, (3) summarize some of the current knowledge and efforts regarding their ecological engineering, and (4) propose future solutions and scenarios under a reconciliation ecology framework.