Singapore Coastal Protection Measures In this Earth, about 60% of its population lives along coasts.

But, erosion may occur along the coast and causes the land to retreat inland and affect the building along the coast. Thus, there is a need to protect them. Coastal protection measures is divided into two groups, the hard engineering and the soft engineering. Hard engineering means the building of structures that could prevent erosion, such as Seawalls, Breakwaters, Groynes, and Gabions. In other hand, the soft engineering is a cheaper option than hard engineering and it applies knowledge of natural processes to protect the coast. Examples are Stablising coastal dunes, Planting mangroves, Beach nourishment, and by Encouraging the growth of coral reefs. Hard Engineering: - Groynes is a low wall build at right angles to prevent materials from being transported away by the longshore drift. - Gabions refers to rocks that are bundled up in wired cages to prevent erosion. They are also used to protect other coastal measures such as seawalls. - Breakwater is build normally out of granites, and placed parallel to the coast and creates a zone of shallow water between it and the coast. It protect the coast as waves will break against it rather than the coast. - Seawalls are walls made of concrete which is located infront of a cliff and is able to absord energy from waves. Thus protecting the coast. But this way, energy from the waves will be directed downwards the seawalls, breaking its base and causing it to collapse. Soft Engineering: - Coastal dunes is a ridge of sand piled up by wind on the coast. Coastal dunes can protect human property like houses and roads against erosion. To stabilise dunes, people would have to plant vegetation such as marram grass as it would bind the sand together preventing the sand to blown inland causing damage for properties. - Planting mangroves can help to prevent erosion as mangrove trees could bind loose soil. - Beach nourishment is a process where a large amount of sand is added to an eroded beach. When longshore drifts occurs, sands were removed from the beach to down side of the coast, sand from the other are of the beach will be brought and deposited to the beach. - Encouraging growth of coral reefs can protect the coast from erosion as coral reefs could reduce the speed of the waves when it reaches the shore, thus the destructive energy of the waves had been weaken or lost. In singapore, there are no much erosion occurs in its coast as it is located in a sheltered area. But Singapore still needs to protect its coast because of its limited land available for development and recreation. Sentosa in Singapore, had 3 main coastal management strategies. These are breakwaters, rock armour, and seawall.

Breakwaters in Sentosa:

Rock armours is large rocks stacked in the coast. They block the waves from disruption the coast by breaking the flow and energy of the water. These are the pictures of rock armours:

As seen on the picture, this Sea wall is made by big companies such as the McConnell Dowell and Delta Marine Consultants . There are 313 vertical steel pipes being piled up along with 288 racked steel pipes.

1. Singapore is a small country but with a growing population, hence there is a need for more land to be used. Land reclamation is one method Singapore has implemented to increase its land area. However, such land is easily eroded by the waves in Singapore due to the deep sea bed resulting in destructive waves. To prevent the loss of sand and the waves from eroding the coast of the reclaimed land and other natural shores, protection of Singapores coastline is important. Singapore cannot afford to lose its size as it is already small and a lot of infrastructure has been built near shores and on the reclaimed land.

2. Seawalls are walls made of concrete/wood/rocks built along coast to absorb wave energy and protect coasts from erosion. This protection measure is seen in the Seawall at the Esplanade (Singapore). This measure is very successful as they reduce coastal erosion and protect lowland coasts from floods. However, this measure is not effective because seawalls can only absorb the energy of the incoming waves. They do not prevent powerful backwash of the refracted waves from washing away the materials beneath the base of seawalls. Eventually the seawalls will collapse. Seawalls are also costly to repair and maintain as constant repairs have to be made to prevent their collapse, hence this is a short term measure. Another protection measure is breakwaters. They are made of concrete/rocks built either with one end attached to the coast or built away from the coast. For example, beach at East Coast Park, Singapore. Breakwaters help to protect the coast and harbor by reducing the force of high energy waves before they reach the shore. When constructed offshore, breakwaters create a zone of calm water behind them, allowing materials to be deposited in the zone to create beaches (for tourism). However, breakwaters are unable to provide complete protection as they still leave areas of the coast unprotected. The unprotected areas will be prone to erosion. Groynes are built at right angles to the shore to prevent longshore drift. For example, in Singapore, groynes are built in East Coast Park. These structures absorb or reduce the energy of the waves and cause materials to be deposited on the side of the groyne facing the longshore drift. However, no fresh materials are deposited on the downdrift side. As a result, longshore drift will gradually erode that part of the beach.