EM 1110-2-1100 (Part I)
30 Apr 02
Chapter I-4
The Coastal Engineering Manual
I-4-1. Background
During the 1970s, `80s, and `90s, coastal engineering practice by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE) and standard engineering for most coastal projects throughout the world have been based, wholly
or in part, on the Shore Protection Manual (SPM). Since the SPM was last updated in 1984, the coastal
engineering field has witnessed many technical advances and increased emphasis on computer modeling,
environmental restoration, and project maintenance applications. The BEB produced the first standardized
guidance on coastal structure design in 1954, Shore Protection Planning and Design, also known as TR-4.
This was the forerunner of the SPM that was first published by CERC in 1973, and revised in 1975, 1977,
and 1984. These documents present the methodology that guided coastal structure and beach fill design for
most of the projects constructed to date. The USACE traditionally is responsible for constructing and
maintaining United States Federally authorized coastal civil works projects including harbor entrance
channels, navigation channels and structures, coastal storm damage reduction and shore protection projects.
Therefore, the USACE is primarily responsible for developing the principles of coastal engineering as they
are practiced in the United States.
a. Shore Protection Planning and Design, TR 4. The methodologies of TR-4 emphasized designing
coastal structures for stability against wave forces. The technology available at that time provided little
means to address the functional performance of structures, nor provide any guidance for predicting the
performance or stability of a beach fill. Beach and dune design was only qualitatively addressed. Simple
linear wave theory, static terrestrial structural engineering principles, and trail-and-error experiential data
were used to develop the empirical relationships and rules-of-thumb presented in TR-4. Beach fills of this era
were not usually designed to perform a particular function, but were typically placed as an added feature to
increase the sediment supply in the area of interest and to reduce wave energy striking the protective
structures (the primary project feature).
b. Shore Protection Manual, SPM. The SPM was a significant advancement over TR-4 in that it used
the results of physical model tests to develop principles of wave-structure interaction, advancements in wave
theory, and statistics and other data from various projects. The SPM provided significantly more guidance
in the positioning and intent of groins and breakwaters, predicting the flood control benefits of seawalls, and
predicting the stability of beach fills. At 1,160 pages, the first edition of the SPM was almost three times the
length of the 20-year-older TR-4 (Camfield 1988). The SPM and beach fill projects of the 1970s and early
`80s were designed around the objective of beach erosion control and recreational use. The quantity of
material to be placed was computed based on the long-term recession rates, and the amount of surface area
desired to support recreational needs. The SPM presented guidance to assist in predicting maintenance
nourishment quantities based on the grain size of the placed fill and its projected stability relative to the native
material grain size. Neither the SPM nor the projects constructed during this time concerned themselves with
the performance of the beach fill template during a particular storm. At that time, beach fills were not usually
designed with a primary purpose of providing flood control benefits.
The SPM is commonly used as a university textbook and as a training aid for apprentice engineers. It is also
a convenient reference for empirical procedures to compute a particular design parameter. Approximately
30,000 copies have been sold through the U.S. Government Printing Office. Translations into other
languages, including Chinese and Catalonnian (Spanish), further attest to the SPM's role as an international
standard guidance for professional coastal engineers (Pope 1993, 1998). Even though the SPM is a general
The Coastal Engineering Manual
I-4-1
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