Precautions for Beach Reclamation

Beach reclamation is a critical operation that involves dredging sand from the ocean onto the beach which may necessitate certain steps to successfully support the activity. The operation incurs additional costs because it simply piles up more sand for flooding, necessitating the placement of safeguards for the added expenditures, which could outweigh the advantages of coastal nourishment. The method of beach reclamation must take into account the loss of environments along the beaches (Peterson et al. 894). Sand addition also ignores the animals and plants that live along the coast because it will kill their breeding, feeding, and living conditions. Therefore, the process of beach reclamation should take precaution to safeguard these habitats.

Determination of the beach site for restoration requires the consideration of the initial causes that led to the degradation of the natural habitat. The process should take into account the slope of the coast, the flow and type of sediment, and the quality of the local water. It requires taking sand from elsewhere with the same natural composition with the beaches for nourishment. Moreover, the activity needs to eliminate structures that may block the sand from entering the system for the restoration of the coastline. The beach marsh can have the ability to grow both vertically and horizontally for self-sustaining and to keep pace with the rise of the sea levels (Peterson et al. 889). A strategy of the co-benefits is fundamental since the coastal lifestyle depends on the natural, healthy resources. Beaches have an economic impact on the coastal communities through tourism, and the reclamation needs to consider protecting the habitats, marshes, and the mangroves at the coast.

Fig. Graph for the transportation rate of long-shore waves at angle 45o

New Jaber Bridge’s impacts in Kuwait

The marine bridge structure is one of the largest projects in the region with the anticipated opening in November 2018. It provides the fresh strategic highway routes which implement the advancement of the northern Kuwait city that consists of the Main link stretching along the Subiya and the capital, and the Doha link encompasses the motorway with the Shuwaikh Port at the south Kuwait bay. The project intends to reduce the distance between Al Subiya to the City from the 104 Km to 36 km. The causeway will turn out as the hot tourist attraction with an impact of reviving the northern region of Kuwait and her future towns (Hewson). Moreover, the Jaber Bridge will reduce the travel time between the capital and the dubbed city into twenty minutes’ drive.

Ahmed Al Sabah causeway aims at renewing the ancient Silk Road trade route between Kuwait and China through the construction of 500,000 inhabitants’ residential at the city. It facilitates the development of the artificial islands with future emergency and traffic service buildings, gas station, boat dock, and the facilities for maintenance. It provides an opening for moving the ships through a 120m and a 23-meter high causeway for navigations. The marine bridge will assist in minimizing the traffic congestions since the two parallel decks may divert the large tracks to enter Shuwaikh port and exit the Doha road. Moreover, it has two carriage ways, three lanes in every direction with an emergency lane to facilitate traffic management systems (Hewson). It has the intelligent transportation monitoring equipment facility for regulations of congestion, trip period recording, tracking emergency vehicles, reporting the violations of the movement. Therefore, the system will feed these data to the Kuwaiti traffic management center for supervision and control.

New Jaber ridge construction will reclaim more than a million meter squares of land that is set to modify the mobility and the infrastructure of the people in the country. The project acts as a story for achievements with regards to the foreign organizations that directly participate in transforming the Kuwait nation into the regional transportation hub. It fulfills the infrastructural ambitions of the government to make their development at par with the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council for modification into the knowledge economy of post-oil (Hewson).

Anthropogenic Effect of Beaches

Coastlines have various species of plants such as the dusty miller, goldenrods, grass, and the seas weeds, and animals like the seagulls, crabs, and oysters. Humans tend to interfere with these living creatures by invading their homes. Moreover, the development of buildings beside the beaches disturbs the natural habitats since they increase the human interactions with the wildlife and the coastal plants. The houses also face problems emerging from the presence of the beaches due to the waves that cause sand erosion that may lead to falling into the ocean. Development of seawalls as an alternative to protecting the buildings that may create more damages as they increase pollution at the coastlines since they can break and influence more erosion (Edge et al. 7).

Human beings hunt wildlife and collect items such as the shells which may act as the new homes for the crabs with outgrown coverings. The intense fishing affects the ecosystem of the sea beyond their original state. It reduces the vital aquatic species such as the fish, and the shellfish and diminishes the natural ability of the ocean to provide adequate food, recover from the stresses of the surrounding such as storms, regulation of clean water, and safeguarding of livelihoods. Research reveals that the human activities affect approximately 40 percent of the oceans worldwide with Caribbean, North Sea, and the Gulf having the most interference (Peterson et al. 882).

Fig. A description of the effects of human activities on oceans worldwide

Anthropogenic impacts on the ocean beaches lie on the economic and the construction activities which oppose the natural effects. Human beings pollute the water bodies by introducing wastes such as the trash left behind across the coastline interferes with the wildlife. The sea creatures can mistake the debris for food that can choke and cause the animals to entangle in the polythene bags (Edge et al. 12). However, the oceans act as a source of business, a beautiful recreational facility for relaxing, and food to the human beings and they need to protect it for sustenance. All water bodies of the world interconnect, and any litter that floats may conceivably end up in the other parts of the earth through the currents. However, many users often take the initiative to volunteer to clean up the beaches by walking several miles to collect and appropriately dispose of the trashes.

In developed countries, they treat their sewage to eliminate the toxic human bacteria while releasing the effluent into the sea. It is appropriate, but it develops challenges in scenarios where the treatment is inactive to the sewer plants due to overloading. Cities have storm drains that directly release contaminated water into the oceans since many people use the outdoor watersheds and the improper septic facilities. A heavy rain flashes these fluids with higher levels of sewage interactions into the sea that pollutes the beaches across the globe (Edge et al. 12). Therefore, the coastal towns have to frequently test their ocean waters and close the contaminated beaches for further treatments to protect the risky health behaviors.

Works Cited

Edge, Billy L., Magoon, Orville T., & Stone, Katherine E. “The impact of Anthropogenic

Activities on Coastal Erosion”. 27th International Conference of Engineering, 2014.

Hewson, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Causeway, Kuwait. 2017.

Peterson, Charles H., & Melanie, Bishop, J. Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Beach

Nourishment. Vol. 55, October, 2005: pp. 887-896.