How to Protect Your Property from Undermining Erosion

Erosion is a major problem for any property that is close to the ocean or other large bodies of water. Although not one of the major life-threatening issues, erosion can, in time, destroy your property. If no appropriate measures are taken in due time, your home can suffer serious structural issues. For instance, homes located near the beach, on banks of sand or other unstable soils can suffer immensely from erosion. This is particularly dangerous if the climate is aggressive – with multiple storms, hurricanes, and strong waves.
How to address erosion and protect your property? What can you do about this natural phenomenon? How can you prevent or repair any potential damage? Let's see some answers to these important questions:

Addressing erosion issues

Erosion is a natural phenomenon that occurs in virtually every location. Erosion is responsible for the shape of mountains, hills, beaches, cliffs, and many other geographical features. Humans have struggled to address erosion since antiquity, protecting important waterways and beaches with ample seawalls and wave-breakers (both parallel and perpendicular to the coast). Now, erosion is handled in many ways, thanks to major advances in technology and soil study. There are important design elements and criteria that are employed in real estate development in order to protect properties against continuous wave attack.

Erosion protection is usually divided into soft approaches and hard approaches. The hard approaches involve building walls and studying the structure of buildings affected by erosion. Soft approaches involve nonstructural solutions and long term repair and maintenance work, as well as modern techniques, like installing the wattlesox.

Essentially, soil erosion is handled and prevented through – efficient management of land use, the use of vegetation, hardening the soil and surrounding areas, and trapping or adding sand. Each of these methods involves the use of multiple techniques and requires varying levels of financial effort. Also, some of these approaches can only be used in certain situations, and are not suited for any type of beach or erosion. For instance, vegetating a site with low wave energy may work splendidly, but using the vegetation strategy on a beach with powerful waves will prove ineffective and too costly. In most cases, undermining erosion should be managed using multiple strategies, according to each specific case. No erosion case is the same – that's the main rule in geology.
Let's go over the main ways of preventing and stopping beach erosion:

Efficient management of land use

The best solution to soil erosion is to simply not build anything near the erosion-prone areas. This aspect is usually regulated by local, county or state laws and building regulations. Land use measures are enforced in almost all jurisdictions, but issues can occur even if all building regulations have been abided by. Land use controls can also be made if there are signs that an area is prone to soil erosion. Management of land use is a complex activity and it involves both active and passive approaches. Here are some of the most common and effective land-use measures that can be employed in order to prevent and repair soil erosion:

• approaches related to planning: community visioning, green planning, education of users, managed retreat, restoration and reclamation of land, technical assistance and consultation
• rules, regulations and local building laws: construction standards, down-zoning, setbacks, buffers, no-build areas, perpendicular access, regulation, reorganization, and coordination among government and state institutions (for instance, common laws and regulations for certain areas prone to erosion)
• incentives: tax reductions, rolling easement, conservation easements, transfer of development rights
• acquisition: lot retirement, fee simple, conservation easements
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Using vegetation

Vegetation is one of the most popular and simple ways to prevent undermining erosion near beaches. It involves planting certain plants (usually grasses and small shrubs) in order to limit and prevent erosion. The plantation is done near the existing tidal and supratidal substrate, depending on the geology of the location. Vegetation works best in areas with limited fetch (the distance traveled by wind or waves across open water), around 0.1 to 0.5 miles. If the fetch is larger, sand relocation must be done in order to get the best results.

Vegetation is also ideal in areas where there are banks, bluffs or cliffs, as the roots from the plants – trees, shrubs, and grasses, will stabilize the soil. Vegetation works best in combination with graded banks and other soil relocation techniques.

Hardening the soil

This is one of the most popular ways to prevent erosion. Hardening involves building some type of protection: seawalls, revetments, and bulkheads. The options are varied and they depend on what type of erosion is active. The materials used are wood, stone, and concrete, but also metal, especially for structural elements. Modern materials, like the wattlesox, are also employed, depending on each specific case. Properly build hardening elements will protect against erosion for decades, especially if good materials are chosen, such as concrete or stone.

Adding and trapping sand

The fourth type of approach against erosion is adding and trapping sand. This method is particularly popular among landowners and beach operators, who prefer to have a clean, welcoming beachfront. Trapping sand or gravel protects the shore because the sand cannot leave the area. The structures used for this are either perpendicular, like groins, or parallel to the shore, like breakwaters. Adding sand to the beach is also important if you choose this method. The process is known as beach nourishment, where you add sand to a beach in order to slow down erosion. Beach nourishment should be integrated with breakwaters and groins, to guarantee the best effects.

Headland control is a more complex approach to soil and beach erosion. It involves building breakwaters, groins, trapping and installing the wattlesox, but also the reinforcement of existing geomorphic features. This method is ideal for long stretches of beach, especially if they are straight and the waves are powerful. The reinforcement of geomorphic features will help create an artificial headland that will break waves before reaching the sandy areas, which are more sensitive to erosion.