centers, and those protected from atmospheric and oceanographic processes.
Introduction
Although humans did not originate in a coastal environment, once they “discovered” it, they entered an
ecological niche that contained numerous opportunities
and challenges. However, long before humans arrived on
the scene, the coastal zone’s gross character had been
established by the constructive and destructive forces
that accompanied the movement of Earth’s several
migrating plates, forces that are still occurring and that
may cause havoc with human endeavors and often tax
the expertise of coastal engineers. With the more localized
actions of wave, current, tide, wind, glacier, biota, and
sea-level change occurring along the world’s 10
6 km long
coastline (Bird and Schwartz, 1985), numerous
highly varied forms developed. These forms, which are
not necessarily mutually exclusive, include barrier islands,
beaches, cliffs, coral reefs, deltas, dunes, estuaries and
lagoons, mangrove swamps, marshes, and mudflats,
among others. Because of location, structure, configuration, and composition, some coastal types are more
amenable to human utilization and modification than
others.
Occupational history and coastal impact
Although humans came in contact with the oceanic shores
of Africa, Europe, and Asia and even Australia quite early,
it was not until near the end of the Pleistocene that they
moved into the Americas. It was not long thereafter that
most of the world’s habitable coastal zones were occupied
even if sparsely. Morphological impact was mainly limited to the construction of middens while exploiting the
zone’s biological resources.
With the coming of agriculture, deltas were colonized,
political organizations founded, and trade utilizing coastal
locations developed. As trade expanded, coastal cities
prospered. This trend continued to such an extent that
today some 60 % of the world’s population is coastal as
are two-thirds of the world’s largest cities (Viles and
Spencer, 1995). Further, the pressures exerted by such
concentrations are resulting in a coastal zone that is being
humanly modified more rapidly than at any time in
the past.
Recognizing that not all human modification is direct or
even intentional, the discussion that follows, nonetheless,
places emphasis on those changes that are engineered,
namely, reclamation, harbors and ports, shoreline protection, and soft engineering.
From tide pools to polders
Just who was the first coastal engineer is unknown. However, if engineering includes all conscious modification of
the environment, then he or she might have been the person who first rearranged boulders along a rocky shore in
order to aid in harvesting tidal pools. The objective was
to enhance food supply, an objective that has dominated
much of coastal engineering. Such a simple structure
that takes advantage of tides and waves has evolved
into concrete tidal ponds in which the Japanese cultivate
abalone, rock-bound loko (fish ponds) in aboriginal
Hawaii, and solar salt pans in many countries around the
world (Walker, 2002). Although only a few of the Hawaiian fish ponds are in use today, their structures still mark
the shore line, and, for the most part, solar salt production
has expanded from small pans to very large fields in
France, Korea, Italy, the USA (Ver Plank, 1958), and
elsewhere.
The structures associated with such endeavors capitalized on the physical and chemical processes of the nearshore waters. In contrast, as Chapman noted,
“. . .reclamation usually signifies exclusion of marine or
estuarine waters from littoral or riparian lands. . .” (1982,
514). Such exclusion can be achieved by raising the level
of the land or by damming and then draining the area
being reclaimed. Both practices have a long history. In
China, a well-documented history of the Shijiang (Pearl
River) delta traces reclamation through hundreds of years
and for scores of kilometers. By 1950, it had more than
1,300 km of dykes and levees. Reclamation has been so
extensive in China that more than half of its mudflats have
disappeared (Halvany, 2009). Similar projects have been
undertaken elsewhere. In Korea a plan, which is still ongoing, called for reclaiming 7,270 km
2 of tidal flat and shallow water areas.
Although reclamation has been mainly in the name of
agriculture and mariculture, other objectives are
gaining in importance. For example, in Singapore, it is
being done in the name of industry, urban renewal, shipping, recreation, housing, and transportation with each
reflecting its own engineering challenges (Walker and
McGraw, 2010).
A somewhat different but more “sophisticated”
(according to Volker, 1982, 2) type of reclamation is that
generally known as poldering. Volker defines polder as a
“. . .reclaimed level area having a naturally high watertable but where the surface and groundwater levels can
be controlled” (1982, 2). Low-lying coastal areas, coastal
marshes, and tidal embayments have all been polderized.
Because polders are isolated from surrounding water bodies, elaborate drainage systems are necessary and excess
water must be transferred through sluice gates or by
pumps – achieved in part, and especially in the past, by
picturesque Dutch windmills. The key to poldering is the
dyke that surrounds the reclaimed land (Figure 1a). There
is some question as to whether the first dykes in the Netherlands were defensive structures aimed at protecting the
terpen (dwelling mounds) from floods or offensive structures that helped create new land (Harris, 1957). Whereas
poldering is usually associated with the Netherlands, it is a
practice that probably goes back at least 6,000 years. In
more modern times (often with the help of Dutch engineers), it has been used in countries such as the USA, Venezuela, Colombia, India, Vietnam, and Russia.
ENGINEERED COASTS
227
Introduction
Although humans did not originate in a coastal environment, once they “discovered” it, they entered an
ecological niche that contained numerous opportunities
and challenges. However, long before humans arrived on
the scene, the coastal zone’s gross character had been
established by the constructive and destructive forces
that accompanied the movement of Earth’s several
migrating plates, forces that are still occurring and that
may cause havoc with human endeavors and often tax
the expertise of coastal engineers. With the more localized
actions of wave, current, tide, wind, glacier, biota, and
sea-level change occurring along the world’s 10
6 km long
coastline (Bird and Schwartz, 1985), numerous
highly varied forms developed. These forms, which are
not necessarily mutually exclusive, include barrier islands,
beaches, cliffs, coral reefs, deltas, dunes, estuaries and
lagoons, mangrove swamps, marshes, and mudflats,
among others. Because of location, structure, configuration, and composition, some coastal types are more
amenable to human utilization and modification than
others.
Occupational history and coastal impact
Although humans came in contact with the oceanic shores
of Africa, Europe, and Asia and even Australia quite early,
it was not until near the end of the Pleistocene that they
moved into the Americas. It was not long thereafter that
most of the world’s habitable coastal zones were occupied
even if sparsely. Morphological impact was mainly limited to the construction of middens while exploiting the
zone’s biological resources.
With the coming of agriculture, deltas were colonized,
political organizations founded, and trade utilizing coastal
locations developed. As trade expanded, coastal cities
prospered. This trend continued to such an extent that
today some 60 % of the world’s population is coastal as
are two-thirds of the world’s largest cities (Viles and
Spencer, 1995). Further, the pressures exerted by such
concentrations are resulting in a coastal zone that is being
humanly modified more rapidly than at any time in
the past.
Recognizing that not all human modification is direct or
even intentional, the discussion that follows, nonetheless,
places emphasis on those changes that are engineered,
namely, reclamation, harbors and ports, shoreline protection, and soft engineering.
From tide pools to polders
Just who was the first coastal engineer is unknown. However, if engineering includes all conscious modification of
the environment, then he or she might have been the person who first rearranged boulders along a rocky shore in
order to aid in harvesting tidal pools. The objective was
to enhance food supply, an objective that has dominated
much of coastal engineering. Such a simple structure
that takes advantage of tides and waves has evolved
into concrete tidal ponds in which the Japanese cultivate
abalone, rock-bound loko (fish ponds) in aboriginal
Hawaii, and solar salt pans in many countries around the
world (Walker, 2002). Although only a few of the Hawaiian fish ponds are in use today, their structures still mark
the shore line, and, for the most part, solar salt production
has expanded from small pans to very large fields in
France, Korea, Italy, the USA (Ver Plank, 1958), and
elsewhere.
The structures associated with such endeavors capitalized on the physical and chemical processes of the nearshore waters. In contrast, as Chapman noted,
“. . .reclamation usually signifies exclusion of marine or
estuarine waters from littoral or riparian lands. . .” (1982,
514). Such exclusion can be achieved by raising the level
of the land or by damming and then draining the area
being reclaimed. Both practices have a long history. In
China, a well-documented history of the Shijiang (Pearl
River) delta traces reclamation through hundreds of years
and for scores of kilometers. By 1950, it had more than
1,300 km of dykes and levees. Reclamation has been so
extensive in China that more than half of its mudflats have
disappeared (Halvany, 2009). Similar projects have been
undertaken elsewhere. In Korea a plan, which is still ongoing, called for reclaiming 7,270 km
2 of tidal flat and shallow water areas.
Although reclamation has been mainly in the name of
agriculture and mariculture, other objectives are
gaining in importance. For example, in Singapore, it is
being done in the name of industry, urban renewal, shipping, recreation, housing, and transportation with each
reflecting its own engineering challenges (Walker and
McGraw, 2010).
A somewhat different but more “sophisticated”
(according to Volker, 1982, 2) type of reclamation is that
generally known as poldering. Volker defines polder as a
“. . .reclaimed level area having a naturally high watertable but where the surface and groundwater levels can
be controlled” (1982, 2). Low-lying coastal areas, coastal
marshes, and tidal embayments have all been polderized.
Because polders are isolated from surrounding water bodies, elaborate drainage systems are necessary and excess
water must be transferred through sluice gates or by
pumps – achieved in part, and especially in the past, by
picturesque Dutch windmills. The key to poldering is the
dyke that surrounds the reclaimed land (Figure 1a). There
is some question as to whether the first dykes in the Netherlands were defensive structures aimed at protecting the
terpen (dwelling mounds) from floods or offensive structures that helped create new land (Harris, 1957). Whereas
poldering is usually associated with the Netherlands, it is a
practice that probably goes back at least 6,000 years. In
more modern times (often with the help of Dutch engineers), it has been used in countries such as the USA, Venezuela, Colombia, India, Vietnam, and Russia.
ENGINEERED COASTS
227