Soft engineering can be defined as the use of ecological principles and practices to reduce erosion and attain the safety of the shorelines. Soft engineering methods are usually more long-lasting and sustainable than hard-engineering. One example of soft engineering is beach nourishment. Beach nourishment involves adding a large amount of sand to the beach when the sand gets eroded away during long-shore drift. Beach nourishment, however, is very expensive to be performed and does not remove the physical factors of erosion but simply puts off the consequences to a later date. …show more content…
From the graph, we can see that the beach volume always falls back to critically low a few years after nourishment.
Hard engineering is a managed disruption of natural processes through man-made structures. An example of hard engineering is building of seawalls. Seawalls protects land and buildings against erosion. However, these are expensive to build and the cost of maintenance is high as the walls get eroded away as well. Another example is the breakwaters. They protect coast from high-energy waves and encourage build-up of beach. However, the cost of construction is high as well and are not aesthetically pleasing.
At East Coast Park, there has been clear active erosion taking place, which is evident through exposed roots and steep scarps. There are other evidences where during our survey, a respondent pointed out how he has noticed that the shoreline has been becoming nearer to the footpaths over the years. (Exposed roots and steep scarps taken in May