Put ‘super beachfront’ lots off limit

Super beachfront lots, many platted in the 1940s and ’50s, are properties that were reclaimed by the ocean but have since re-emerged, thanks to taxpayer-funded beach renourishment.

Coastal armoring and disappearing beaches; By Gary Griggs

Coastal erosion or retreat is a natural ongoing process that has only become a problem because people have built structures or infrastructure in areas exposed to wave attack and erosion. Beaches, dunes, bluffs and cliffs are all temporary features that will continue to be shaped by wave, wind and tidal forces as well as a rising sea level.

Half of the world’s beaches could disappear by the end of the century, study finds

Climate change poses an existential threat to the world’s sandy beaches, and that as many as half of them could disappear by the end of the century, a new study has found. The study was published Monday in the scientific Journal Nature Climate Change and was conducted by scientists from the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, as well as universities in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Study examines coastal erosion, drawbacks of standard setback requirements

Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care Excerpts; Research on the Big Island’s coastal erosion, led by a University of Hawaii at Hilo graduate student, is being used to shape county planning policies. Hawaii County is the only county in the state that hasn’t done research to understand the island’s shoreline changes. Despite the island’s differing […]

In the Afro-Caribbean heart of Puerto Rico, locals fight erosion

The waves crashed loudly on the collapsed ruins of the Paseo del Atlántico, a walkway that once partially protected residents here from the volatile ocean. Erosion along this northernmost coast of Puerto Rico, nearly 20 miles east of San Juan, precipitated the promenade’s destruction, it finally fell into the Atlantic, exposing the Parcelas Suárez neighborhood to the water’s edge.