International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering 1013

ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 1013-1016

Geotubes for Beach Erosion Control in Goa

S. R. Parab, D S Chodankar, R. M. Shirgaunkar, M Fernandes, A. B. Parab
Final Year Students, Civil Engineering Department, Government Polytechnic, Bicholim – Goa – 403504
S. S. Aldonkar
Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department, Government Polytechnic, Bicholim – Goa – 403504,
haldankarsmita@gmail.com
P. P. Savoikar
Head, Civil Engineering Department, Government Polytechnic, Bicholim – Goa – 403504, psavoikar@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Goa has a sprawling coastal belt of 105 km long, which attracts lakhs of national and international tourists
every year. More than 10% of this belt is suffering from the severe problem of erosion at as many as 21 locations. The
sea erosion over the years has intensified to a very large extent, resulting in a very huge threat not only to the coastline
but also to human lives. The consequence of erosion can range from the simple loss of coastal areas to scouring and
breakdown of structures constructed near to the shores. The several measures to control the problem of erosion include
construction of breakwaters, sand by-passing, groynes, sea walls and revetments, beach nourishment, seaweed planting,
sand stabilization and use of geosynthetics. The various geosynthetic solutions like geotubes, geobags, geomattresses,
geocontainers, and geocurtains can also be tried. The scope of this paper is to present the beach erosion control measures
and the case study of Candolim beach in Goa ehere geotubes had ben provided as erosion control measure, but were
badly damaged/failed due to wave action and other forces. In the present case, considering the tidal variation of 2.53m,
two layers of geotubes with slope protection in form of layer of geotextile and riprap is suggested.

KEY WORDS: Geosynthetics, Geotubes, beach erosion, tidal variation.

INTRODUCTION

The State is well known for its beaches and for tourism.
Coastal line of the State is extended 105 km (65miles) in
westward side with total length of navigable rivers in the
State is 253km (157miles). Coastal area of Goa includes
beaches like: Terekhol, Arambol, Mandrem, Morjim,
Vagator, Anjuna, Baga, calangute, Sinquerim, Candolim,
Miramar, Dauna Paula, Vaiguinium, Siridao, Bogmalo,
Velsao, Majorda, Betalbatim, Colva, Benaulim, Varca,
Cavelossim, Mabor, Betul, Canaguinim, Agonda,
Palolem, and Talpona, Polem (Fig. 1). Goa is being in
tropical zone, near Arabian Sea, has hot & humid climate
for most of the year with rain lashing the State in the
months from June to September. Past few years, Goan
beaches are facing the acute problem of erosion with
beach sand get washed off from the shore by waves.
Because of this the level of water increases and usable
area of beach decreases. Various beaches like Colva,
Donapaula, Sinquerim, and Candolim have faced this
erosion problem and due to this good number of national
and international tourist have been lost. Fig. 2 shows
erosion and Candolim beach in Goa. One of the most
successful method of protecting shoreline is using of
geotubes, which has been used worldwide. A single layer
of geotubes was provided at Sinquerim beach to control
erosion. However, it was observed that these geotubes got
punctured/failed due to wave action and are no longer
available to protect the beach from erosion.
Figure 1. Beaches of Goa
LITERATURE REVIEW
Beach erosion is a phenomena in which beach sand gets or very little addition of sand by waves, beach erosion
eroded either due to human factors of due to natural takes place. This phenomenon is observed all over the
reasons. It’s a natural phenomena in which beach sand world. Continuous beach erosion washes away beautiful
moves away, either due to wind or wave action. If this beaches and also endangers the houses built near beaches.
movement of sand away from beach is more or there is no Continuous erosion and failure of structures near beaches

#020410461 Copyright © 2011 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved

 1014 S. R. Parab, D S Chodankar, R. M. Shirgaunkar, M Fernandes,
A. B. Parab, S. S. Aldonkar, P. P. Savoikar
creates lots of environmental problems by affecting the
aquatic life and human beings too. A very good example
of this damage can be seen in Fig. 2 showing beach
erosion at Candolim beach, Goa and the threat posed to
the structure located close to the beach.
There are several ways in which beach erosion can be
controlled or stopped. Pilarczyk (2005) reported that
coastal structures like seawalls, dikes, revetments provide
direct protection to the beaches where as groins and
offshore breakwaters provide indirect method of shore
protection. It was further reported that geosynthetic family
products like geotubes, geocontainers, geocurtains and
other patented systems like reef balls, aquareef (Hirose et
al., 2002), prefabricated units, beach drainage, etc. have
also been tried to contain the beach erosion due to their
simplicity in placement and construction, cost
effectiveness and for being environment friendly.
Koerner (2000) reported that geotextile tubes can provide
better protection for beach erosion. Geotextile tubes of
diameters of up to 3m, made up of woven or knitted high
strength fabric have been effectively used to control both
inland and oceanfront erosion. Length of geotubes is
decided based on ease in handling/placing and sand
filling.The main tubes are generally flanked by tubes of
smaller diameters on upstream side which help in resisting
lateral pressure. Also, it is required to provide cover to
geotubes to protect them from degradation/damage.
Figure 2. Sand erosion at Candolim beach.
Figure 3. Multiple geotubes stack arrangement for
erosion control ( Koerner, 2000).
International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 1013-1016
Shin et al. (2002) had conducted pilot scale field tests to
study the performance of geotubes made up from woven
geotextile filled by hydraulically pumping dredged silty
clay material into it. Based on this study, it was concluded
that geotubes are feasible construction materials for use in
coastal engineering projects.
BEACH EROSION CONTROL MEASURES
Beach erosion is basically of two types depending upon
the factors and period of erosion. Structural erosion is
long term, gradual erosion continuing year after year.
Episodic erosion occurs during particular event of storms.
Structural erosion occurs generally due to gradient in
longshore sediment transport and leads to loss of material
and retreat of coast line. Structural erosion takes place due
to heavy storms and high waves leading to redistribution
of sediments on shore but no reduction in control volume.
The various erosion control measures are divided into two
categories, viz. hard and soft measures. Hard measures
relate to those methods involving construction of
structures like breakwaters, jetties, seawalls, etc., whereas
soft measures include beach nourishments, beach drainage
and sand mining.
Design of these hard and soft measure structures and
components involve two basic strategies viz. functional
design and structural design. Functional design involves
studying effects of such control measures on various
functional aspect of the coast like improvement of
recreational conditions and conservation of natural living
resources. Structural design involves design of these
erosion control structures for hydraulic forces, viz. wave
force, tidal and current effects.
Soft Measures
The soft measures include control of erosion by methods
which do not involve construction of any permanent
structure for erosion control. The various methods used
are beach nourishment, beach drainage, seaweed planting,
sand mining, etc. these soft measure are cheaper
alternatives and have lesser environmental consequences.
Beach Nourishment
Beach erosion leads to removal or reduction of beach
sand. Beach nourishment involves pumping of sand from
outside onto beach, thus increasing volume of sand on the
beach.
Beach Drainage
When waves rush to the coast, deposition of sand takes
place, while during return waves take away sand along
with it. Former phenomenon is called wave uprush while
later is known as backwash. If beach water table drainage
is provided, it results into deposition of more sand during
uprush thus increasing volume of sand and reducing beach
erosion. This can be achieved by lowering beach water
table by enhancing beach drainage capacity by introducing
strip drains. This technique has been successfully used in
Australia (Davis et al., 1992) and in Japan (Katoh et al.,
1994).
 Geotubes for Beach Erosion Control in Goa
Hard Measures
Hard measures include construction of permanent
structures to control the beach erosion problem. These
structures are jetties, breakwaters, seawalls, groynes,
reduce hydraulic load on the coast.
Jetties, Sea Walls and Breakwaters
Jetties are long structures constructed perpendicular to the
shore thus keeping free passage to harbour. Sometimes,
jetties also lead to beach erosion. Sea walls are built to
prevent continuous erosion of the beaches to protect the
harbour activity. Breakwaters are the structures
constructed along the shore to protect it. Breakwaters
break the destructive action of waves and permit
deposition of sand on the coast. Though above hard
measures provide better erosion control but they are found
to be less cost effective and at the same time, the
aesthetics/beauty of the beaches is lost.
Prefabricated systems
Various prefabricated systems like gabion walls, stone
mattresses, sheet pile structures, used tyre breakwaters,
geotextile curtains, floating breakwaters can be used for
erosion control of beaches.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4. Geobags applications in (a) Revetments, (b)
Groynes and (c) Artificial reefs (Pilraczyk, 2005).
International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 1013-1016
1015
CASE STUDY OF BEACH EROSION IN GOA
The Problem
Figure 2 shows erosion taken place at Candolim beach in
North Goa. Figure 5 shows the 240m long ship grounded
near the Candolim beach few years ago, which lead to the
change in direction of the waves approaching the shore.
This lead to the erosion of beach sand and accumulation
of sand behind the ship.
The Measures Taken
The measures include two parallel rows of geotubes, one
of larger size and one smaller size adjacent to it, were laid
at the site to contain the erosion. The geotube provided at
Candolim beach and the ship stuck at Candolim beach are
shown in Fig. 5. These geotubes were filled with the sand
using pumps. However, over the period of time it was
observed that due to wave action the geotubes bursted and
sand filled inside came out leading to failure of geotubes.
Bursted geotubes are shown in Fig. 6. It was observed that
there is a tidal variation of 2.53m between the high and
low tide and as such it requires design of geotubes
subjected to waves considering effect of tidal variation
also. In addition to the above, since geotubes are exposed
to ultraviolet light and wave action, they are susceptible to
dame and hence need to be protected, which was not done
at this site. These factors might have lead to the failure of
geotubes.
Figure 5. Geotube laid at Candolim Beach
Figure 6. Bursted geotube at Candolim Beach.
 1016 S. R. Parab, D S Chodankar, R. M. Shirgaunkar, M Fernandes,
A. B. Parab, S. S. Aldonkar, P. P. Savoikar
Solution Suggested
Considering the tidal difference of 2.53m and wave
action, it is felt that geotubes needs to be protected from
wave action. Thus, it was suggested that two layers of
geotubes one above the other as shown in Fig. 7 is
required to be provided with upstream protection of these
geotubes in the form of riprap. Also, a layer of
geomembrane is suggested below the geotubes, as shown
in the Fig. 7.
Figure 7. New solution suggested to control erosion
problem at Candolim beach in Goa.
CONCLUSIONS
Over the years it has been observed that many beaches all
over the world are facing the problem of beach erosion.
The problem of beach erosion is twofold, occurring due to
heavy storms (Episodic) and occurring continually over
the years (Structural). Beach erosion leads to economical
as wells as environmental concerns and need to be
addressed. Various hard and soft measures can be adopted
to contain this erosion.
International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, Volume 04, No 06 SPL, October 2011, pp. 1013-1016
Geotubes provide the excellent solution for beach erosion
control. However, it needs to be protected form damage
due to wave action and ultraviolet light by providing
riprap. Also, tidal variation and wave height need to be
considered in design of geotubes. Two layers of geotubes
one above the other is with riprap protection is suggested
to control beach erosion at Candolim beach Goa.
REFERENCES
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