EM 1110-2-1100 (Part I)
30 Apr 02
Figure I-3-12. Workers planting grass on a beach restoration project. The date and location of this image
were not recorded, but the scene is likely the Outer Banks. Many dune and beach restoration efforts,
sponsored by the National Park Service and other agencies during the late 1930s, also served as work relief
efforts for a nation trying to recover from the Great Depression. Photograph from the Beach Erosion Board
Archives
k. Evolution of shore protection and the shift from structures to beach nourishment. Prior to the 1950s,
the general practice was to use hard structures to protect against beach erosion or storm damages. These
structures were usually coastal armoring such as seawalls and revetments or sand-trapping structures such
as groins. During the 1920s and `30s, private or local community interests protected many areas of the shore
using these techniques in a rather ad hoc manner. In certain resort areas, structures had proliferated to such
an extent that the protection actually impeded the recreational use of the beaches. Erosion of the sand
continued, but the fixed back-beach line remained, resulting in a loss of beach area. The obtrusiveness and
cost of these structures led the USACE in the late 1940s and early 1950s, to move toward a new, more
dynamic, method. USACE projects no longer relied solely on hard coastal defense structures as techniques
were developed which replicated the protective characteristics of natural beach and dune systems. The
resultant use of artificial beaches and stabilized dunes as an engineering approach was an economically viable
and more environmentally friendly means for dissipating wave energy and protecting coastal developments.
Artificial beaches also had more aesthetic and recreational value then structured shores. The transition from
hard structures to beach fill approaches is depicted in Figure I-3-13, which compares the percentage of
Federal shore protection funds spent on beach nourishment and on coastal protection structures per decade.
Since the 1970s, 90 percent of the Federal appropriation for shore protection has been for beach nourishment
(Hillyer 1996).
History of Coastal Engineering
I-3-21
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