Coastal Erosion- Week 13



          South Korea has been experiencing significant coastal erosions due to many factors that are caused by humans such as large scale development and port construction but the coastal erosions are mostly due to natural causes such as sea level rise, typhoons, and storm surges. Because of these causes, many beaches in South Korea are at risk and could be worsening everyday. The government of Korea have been creating strategies for coastal management. Due to the erosions many businesses that were in the area had to relocate. In other spots on the beaches, steep dunes as high as 5 meters were forming, this poses as a safety risk for people and animals and also disrupted tourism. In 1999, a coast management act had failed to protect the shorelines in comparison to countries such as the U.S. and Japan where they had tighter measures. 

Wolcheon beach located in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, South Korea is the main one to have suffered the most from erosion along with Hosan beach. In 2012, the sand at the Wolcheon beach had been loss due to severe beach erosion that was caused by a wave field change. In some cases, some beach erosions have actually been caused by erosion prevention structures. In the Gangneung's Haseong beach, the installation of an underwater breakwater as part of the "Anin Thermal Power Plant Project" in 2020 was found to have been the cause to an accelerated sand loss and worsened the erosion. In the past decade, 11 major coastal cities has decreased in land area by 396,535 square meters. 

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/environment-animals/20241008/koreas-coastlines-continue-to-shrink-43-of-areas-at-risk-of-severe-coastal-erosion      

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723013724                  

https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/25/3239/2025/                          

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/skoreas-beaches-face-threat-development-rising-seas-2021-11-19/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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