Shoreline Management

The development of strategic, long-term and sustainable coastal defence and land-use policy within a sediment cell.

Glossary of Terms

Dry land area above and landward of the ordinary high water mark (ohwm).

Often used as a general term to mean high land far from the coast and in the interior of the country.

May be classified as non-renewable (e.g. coal, oil) and renewable. The latter may further be classified as unconditionally renewable (e.g. solar, tidal or wind energy) and conditionally renewable (e.g. fish, forest products). Conditionally renewable sources will last indefinitely if not over-exploited because that part of the resource that is used can be replaced through natural processes.

Seagrass

Members of marine seed plants that grow chiefly on sand or sand-mud bottom. They are most abundant in water less than 9m deep. The common types are: Eel grass (Zostera), Turtle grass (Thallasia), and Mantee grass (Syringodium).

Groyne

Narrow, roughly shore-normal structure built to reduce longshore currents, and/or to trap and retain littoral material. Most groins are of rock and extend from the backshore, well onto the foreshore and rarely even further offshore.

Reef breakwater

Rubble mound of single-sized stones with a crest at or below sea level which is allowed to be (re)shaped by the waves.

Overwash

Transport of the sediment landward of the active beach by coastal flooding during a tsunami, hurricane, or other event with extreme waves.

The part of the uprush that runs over the crest of a berm of a structure and does not flow directly back to the ocean or lake.

The effects of waves overtopping a coastal defence, often carrying sediment landwards which is then lost to the beach system.

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Shoreline Management