Of Men and Beaches

1
Of Men and Beaches

• How do we manage our shoreline?

2
Outline

• How much money is at stake?
• Who is deciding? How?
• And the environment in all that?

3
How much money is at stake?
California Beach Restoration Study, chap 9.
4
Who is going to the beach?
California Beach Restoration Study, chap 9.
5
Who is going to the beach?
6
What are people thinking of when they think of
the beach?
7
Beach attendance evolution
California Beach Restoration Study, chap 9.
8
The Solution Beach nourishment
Before june 1995
After, june 1995
April 1997
Upham beach west central florida
http//coastal.er.usgs.gov/wfla/video/vidphotos.ht
ml
9
Estimated tax revenue with and without beach
maintenance could loose 42
California Beach Restoration Study, chap 9.
10
Other benefits associated with beach nourishment
according to

• Keep the local species (snowy plower, grunion)
• Numerous studies indicate that people who engage
  in outdoor activity are more likely to be
  sensitive to environmental issues, compared to
  people who do not recreate outdoors. (American
  Recreation coalition 1999)
• Public safety benefits
• limit bluff collapse, protects the coast in case
  of a storm.
  
• Provide safer access to water for surfers and
  swimmers
  

California Beach Restoration Study, chap 3.5
11
Conclusion

• People like large sandy beaches and spend a lot
  of money there.
  
• The public agencies have interest in maintaining
  sandy beaches.
  
• Who are the other voices in this issue?

12
Who has a word to say?

• Property owners
• Experts
• Government regulators
• Policy makers, and law makers

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
13
Property owners

• Want to maximize their property value, and the
  use of their property.
  
• Are informed by handbooks, consultants, gvt
  regulators, neighbors, flood zone map

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
14
Experts and consultants

• Want to
• satisfy their clients
• Make a profit
• Maintain their credibility
• Are informed by
• Litterature, experience, field work
• Government agencies

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
15
Government regulators

• Want to implement and enforce regulations
• Are informed by reports of the NRC, consultants,
  legal counsels, professional networks,
  experience.
  
• Example US Army Corps of Engineers.

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
16
Policy and law makers

• Want
• Re-election
• Maintain the tax base
• Quality of life, public health, safety and
  welfare
  
• Are informed by
• Press
• Constituants
• Staff(trusted experts in the field)
• Gvt agencies and NGOs

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
17
Regulation The public Trust Doctrine

• The waters of the state are a public resource
  owned by and available to all citizens equally
  for the purposes of navigation, conducting
  commerce, fishing, recreation and similar uses
  and that this trust is not invalidated by private
  ownership of the underlying land.
• The doctrine limits public and private use of
  tidelands and other shorelands to protect the
  public's right to use the waters of the state.
  

18
How is the shore managed today

• Regulatory incentive to build seawalls bulkheads
  and revetments.
  
• Bias towards building landwards of the PTD.
• Under-evaluation of environmental cost
• Non - structural erosion control techniques are
  under used.
  
• Lack of knowledge of options
• Regulatory response is generally reactive rather
  than proactive. Most states have not developed
  plans for responding to and managing erosion in
  sheltered shorelines.

Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
OSB. Chap 5
19
California Coastal management program

• What has the Coastal Act accomplished? The most
  important achievements are the things one cannot
  see public access and recreation opportunities
  not lost, wetlands not filled, coastal views not
  lost, agricultural lands not paved, sprawling
  subdivisions not built. Highway One has been
  retained as a scenic two-lane road, attracting
  visitors from around the world.

California Coastal Commission brochure 2006
20
Impact of coastal management on the ecosystem
21
Beach ecosystem

• Nutrient uptake
• Beaches are usually nutrient limited, which
  allows a large variety of plant to compete.
  
• Food production
• Beaches support an extensive trophic structure
  many on the form of infaunia (animals who live
  inside the sediment) from bacteria to shore
  birds
• Importing foreign sand will change the ecosystem
  
  

22
Beach ecosystem

• Nourishment
• Replaces the near shore benthic community with a
  supra-tidal beach and dune.
  
• Breakwater
• They can host barnacles and oysters, be the
  refugee for fish, and for sheltered coastline
  beach population.
  

23
Conclusion

• Beach tourism industry has a lot of money and
  interests involved in it
  
• Mitigation of the changes in our natural
  environment can have profound effects
  
• Decision making needs to be better advised by
  scientists.

24
Of Scientists and Policy makers
Science Policy and the Coast. NRC chap 3
25
Excerpt from Science, Policy and the Coast

• Human ego is a powerful thing and few things
  offend us and make us react in a negative way as
  much as the knowledge that another person does
  not value, respect, or understands what we are as
  individuals or was we do professionally. Whether
  it is an interaction between a fisherman and a
  biologist, an oil worker and an environmentalist
  , an scientist and a politician, if we interact
  with others with an attitude of superiority and
  contempt, conflict is likely. Understanding does
  not have to mean admiration or agreement, but
  simply an acceptance of the fact that the other
  party has legitimate status and ole in the human
  ecology of the policy making process and views
  that must be understood in the context of that
  status and role.

Science Policy and the Coast, Improving decision
making. NRC chap 3
26
Bibliography

• California Beach Restoration Study,NRC chap 9.
• http//www.nap.edu/catalog/4984.html
• Mitigating shore erosion along sheltered coasts.
  OSB. Chap 5
  
• http//fermat.nap.edu/books/0309103460/html
• Science Policy and the Coast, Improving decision
  making. NRC chap 3 http//fermat.nap.edu/books/030
  9053390/html
  
• http//www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/sma/laws_rules/
  public_trust.html
  
• http//www.csc.noaa.gov/beachnourishment/html/geo/
  shorelin.htm
  
• http//coastal.er.usgs.gov/wfla/video/vidphotos.ht
  ml