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A be ach i s a sloping accumulation of sediment, usually sand or gravel, that is a result of wave action at the edge of a water body, such as an ocean or lake. The presence of a uniform surface adjacent to water provides a prime location for recreational activities that, in turn, often drive regional economies. Beaches also hold great environmental value and provide habitat for a variety of important species. Because of the environmental, social, and economic value of beaches, societies have long grappled with how best to manage these landforms. Questions of beach replenishment, the protection of endangered species, and the public’s right of access all complicate society’s relationship to its beaches.
Beaches are not static features. They represent a balance between the size and regularity of waves and the availability of sediment. The action of waves reworks and sorts the sediment, washing away smaller particles and leaving larger ones, like sand or gravel. If a water body has little to no wave action, no beach will form. Similarly, the supply of sediment available to the waves must be sufficient to create a beach-too little sediment supply, and the beach will decrease in size. The supply of sediment commonly comes from nearby bluffs, a river mouth, or a reef offshore. Waves approaching the shore at an angle move the sediment and sand along the beach, which becomes important when considering how society alters beaches.
A common way humans interrupt the sediment supply is through the construction of groins-rock jetties perpendicular to the shoreline. These structures are designed to trap sand moving along the beach to produce a wider beach. Unfortunately, this trapped sediment is prevented from moving further along the shore, resulting in erosion downdrift of the groin. Similarly, homes built above an eroding bluff may be protected in the short term by the construction of a sea wall that removes the bluff as a sediment source for a nearby beach. Dams on rivers also trap sediment and prevent it from being carried by the river to the coast where it nourishes beaches. All three of these modifications-groins, sea walls, and dams-are built with good short-term intentions, but have unaccounted costs to society in the form of accelerated beach erosion. In some cases, society pays for these costs through beach replenishment, the importing of sediment from an offshore or land-based source at great expense. Artificial beach replenishment has to be repeated as long as the cause of the sediment supply reduction remains in place.
The physical dynamics of a beach are just one set of factors influencing society’s use of beach environments. The public’s right to beach access can be limited due to health concerns or property rights. Along many populated coasts, beach closures are common due to elevated levels of bacteria in the water, particularly after rain events that wash polluted storm water to the coast or cause sewer systems to overflow. Beaches also provide breeding habitat for a variety of species (such as horseshoe crabs and sea turtles) and, in many cases, society has chosen to restrict access to beaches during breeding times for these species.
The broader question of who has the right to access a particular beach is complex in a beach landscape that is both desirable and dynamic. Landowners adjacent to beaches are interested in protecting their privacy, while the public has an interest in preserving equal access to the beach. Laws outlining public and private rights vary by region, but many are based on some definition of the shoreline boundary, such as the mean high water line. The situation is exacerbated by global sea level rise that, in most cases, is moving the mean high water line farther ashore and narrowing the distance between the water line and private property.
The intensity of society-nature interactions is proportional to the environmental and economic value of the landscape in question. Only through acknowledgment of the processes that form beaches can society ensure its beaches will be accessible and available for future generations.
Bibliography:
- F. Nordstrom, Beaches and Dunes of Developed Coasts (Cambridge University Press, 2000);
- D. Short, ed., Handbook of Beach and Shoreface Morphodynamics, (John Wiley & Sons, 2000).
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