Beach Nourishment + Maintenance

January 25, 2025

Playa del Carmen (by Noticaribe CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

Is the solution to Playa del Carmen’s shrinking coastline simply moving sand around? – Yucatan Magazine

Excerpt:
Playa del Carmen was once known as one of Mexico’s most stunning beach destinations, with miles upon miles of pristine coastlines, white sand, and the turquoise ocean the Caribbean is famous for…

But these days, much of Playa del Carmen’s beaches have eroded to the point that they almost don’t exist anymore or are often so full of seaweed that getting into the ocean is not even an option. 

The shrinking coastline has been victim to natural disasters but environmental experts argue that corruption and a lack of planning are the true culprits. 

“We have had hurricanes in this part of the world since antiquity, it makes no sense to blame weather events. Let’s not fool ourselves, this problem is man-made, the obvious result of corruption and willful negligence,” says Guadalupe de la Rosa Villalba, of the Playa del Carmen-based environmental organization Moce Yax Cuxtal.

Though authorities refute this claim, Quintana Roo’s state government has reportedly authorized a campaign to extract and move thousands of metric tons of sand from other locations in an attempt to salvage Playa del Carmen’s reputation. 

“Visitors are starting to ask questions. Many of them have visited before and notice how bad the situation has become. For the sake of our community something has to be done,” reads a press statement from city hall. 

Moving sand to fix beaches, often called beach nourishment, has several drawbacks which include environmental damage to the areas targeted for extraction, and the fact that it is at best a temporary solution…

More on Beach Nourishment + Maintenance . . .

An aerial view of the Virginia Beach Hurricane Protection and Renourishment project. which replenished 1.25 million cubic yards of sand, increasing the beach from 150 and 280 feet wide to as much as 300 feet (Courtesy of the Norfolk District, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

Beach Nourishment: A Critical Look – Gary Griggs | Journal of Coastal Research

More than $15 billion, mostly federal dollars, have been spent moving sand to the shoreline for both recreational and shoreline protection benefits. Still, whether in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Florida, or California, the life span of the sand added artificially to these beaches in many cases has been relatively short and in some instances has been less than a year…

First Phase of Port Monmouth, NJ Coastal Storm Management Project Begins - July 1, 2014 (courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Domain, via Flickr).

Dredging, beach replenishment continues in Monmouth County – PBS

Tens of millions of dollars pour into the state each year to fund beach replenishment efforts ..

“…we are doing it with the intent of preserving the economic usefulness of oceanfront properties that are being threatened by erosion and shoreline migration, sea-level rise and storm waves and so forth…That methodology (used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is flawed because it uses property value to determine the benefits of nourishment and our belief is that our property values aren’t the correct way to assess the utilization or return on public funds. A better way of doing that is looking at what are the public benefits.”
– Andy Coburn, Associate Director for the Study of Developed Shorelines | Western Carolina State University

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