Beach protection

More than 70% of the earth’s shorelines are retreating due to rising sea levels. As shorelines move further inland, structures located on or near the coast may be destroyed. The appearance of a beach and its potential for recreational use may suffer. Importing sand to refill the beach levels is required every few years to keep beaches from retreating, and this typically comes at a very high cost each time.

Beach ecosystems may be negatively impacted by the importation of sand. Rock armour is a possible solution, but cannot always be used in highly populated areas or tourist resorts due to its hard structure. In these situations, Enka Solutions products can offer alternatives.

Enka-G-Bag is a direct solution to protect the beach from erosion. These are extremely robust nonwoven bags designed to be filled with local sand, which can be used as a building element. Enka-G-Bag has proven a successful solution for beach wall protection, revetments, breakwaters and riverbank protection.

The beach can also be protected indirectly by adapting the current along the beach or the wave action on the beach which is responsible for the erosion. Enka-G-Tube is installed perpendicular to the beach in order to block the current, which diminishes the strength of the current and causes the sand to settle rather than being washed away.

To influence the wave energy on the beach, Enka-G-Tube can be installed underwater parallel to the beach. This makes the waves break earlier so that some of their energy will be lost before they reach the beach. Consequently, the wave has less impact on the beach, which reduces erosion.

Nonwoven flexible Enka-G-Bag forms a solid seashore area and riverbank protection. Enka-Tex high tensile woven fabrics, wrapped around the bottom layers and securely anchored back into the structure minimize local deformation and loss of stability.

Enka-G-Tube, perpendicular to or parallel to the coastline has proven to serve well in stimulating accretion in intertidal areas and offers protection against tidal currents by acting as groyne or breakwater.

Functions:

• Energy absorption
• Erosion control

Relevant products:

• Enka®-Tex wovens
• Enka®-G-Bag
• Enka®-G-Tube