Miami beach renourishment, Florida, 8-30-2016. Photo source: ©© Jaxstrong
“Development is absolutely responsible for the majority of the beach nourishment,” Andrew Coburn, assistant director of The Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, said. “Well over 99 percent of the shorelines that are nourished are developed so there is some economic value placed behind them.”
Excerpts;
This is the story of modern-day Florida, where the landscapes most susceptible to drowning and destruction are also the targets of both rampant development and beach nourishment — the process of shoring up eroding coastal landscapes with sand…
Read Full Article; by John Platt, Hakai Magazine (12-20-2016)
Shrinking Shores: Florida reneges on pledges to its beaches; The Naples Daily News (11-17-2016)
The shores shrink, the tourists scatter, the tax base shrivels. That’s what troubles many communities across the state forced to shoulder the expensive burden of beach renourishment…
Sand’s end, The Verge (11-17-2016)
Miami Beach has run out of sand. Now what?..
Shrinking Shores: Florida sand shortage leaves beaches in lurch, The Naples Daily News (11-17-2016)
Beaches are built one truckload at a time as the main ingredient in the State’s beach renourishemnt program – offshore sand – gets harder to find…
Developers don’t get it: climate change means we need to retreat from the coast, Guardian UK (15-03-2016)
It is preposterous to build in areas that are bound to flood. So why are real estate companies still doing it?..
Miami Beach Sees Rising Seas as No Threat to Real Estate Boom, For Now; Phys.Org (04-22-2015)
Coastal geologist criticizes beach renourishment efforts; By Robert S. Young, PhD; The State (08-17-2016)
Rob Young, who heads the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, said the government is subsidizing coastal development with renourishment money – and that’s costing taxpayers. Communities across the country have spent millions of dollars renourishing beaches. Those efforts encourage people to rebuild after every major hurricane…
Palm Beach Mid-Town Dredge Project, A Youtube Video (02-04-2015)
“Beach nourishment projects like this have become commonplace along the US East and Gulf Coasts. These projects have immediate environmental impacts through burial of nearshore habitat and increased turbidity during project placement.The cumulative environmental impacts of doing this repeatedly on the same beach while conducting projects from Maine to Texas is unknown. But, we should be concerned. ” —Robert S. Young, PhD, Director, Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, Professor, Coastal Geology, Western Carolina University
The Conservation Crisis No One Is Talking About, TakePart (09-21-2016)
Beaches around the world are disappearing. No, the cause isn’t sea-level rise, at least not this time. It’s a little-known but enormous industry called sand mining, which every year sucks up billions of tons of sand from beaches, ocean floors, and rivers to make everything from concrete to microchips to toothpaste…
