2.11A Hard engineering

• Advantages of Hard engineering:

  • It's obvious to at-risk people that something is being done to protect them, its reassuring
  • A 'one-off' solution that could protect a coastline for decades
• Disadvantages of hard engineering:

  • Costs are usually very high, and there are still ongoing maintenance costs
  • Even very carefully designed engineering solutions are prone to failure
  • Coastlines are made visually unattractive and the needs of a coastal ecosystem are usually overlooked
• Hard engineering examples:

  • groynes
  • sea walls
  • rip rap
  • revetments
  • offshore breakwaters