Australian beaches could struggle to recover if a third La Nina weather event occurs this year, threatening coastal communities, experts warn | Laura_R_Chung abbseaman
Australian beaches could struggle to recover if a third La Nina weather event occurs this year after many of the most popular sandy stretches suffered back-to-back weather events that stripped away their sand.
“During big storm events, like what we have seen over the past couple of years, what we see is that the waves strip the beaches of sand. It doesn’t disappear, it just moves into deeper water. The sand slowly returns to the beach during calming conditions.” “If we do see more frequent events we are going to see continual pressure on beachfront properties,” he said. “Everyone wants to live next to the coast and there is always pressure to build more and more properties along the coast – but it creates legacy issues that generations in the future will have to address – particularly around climate change and the tremendous threats that can cause to the coastline.
“We haven’t seen that type of erosion in the past and this could create new erosion hotspots and so that is a big concern,” Harley said.citizen science project which monitors beachesMark “Dippy” DePena, 67, has surfed the shores of Cronulla Beach since high school and said the coastline has changed dramatically in the past 55 years.
Without proper mitigation and adaptation efforts from government, councils and community, ANU associate professor at Fenner School for Environment and Society Dr Liz Hanna said there would be impacts on people’s health. This includes displacement and loss of connection to the community. The NSW government is working with local councils to plan for and respond to erosion, including monitoring what new developments are allowed to go ahead, ensuring the environmental and community benefits remain and providing funding for mitigation works.The Department of Environment and Heritage also provides seven long-term offshore wave buoys and several ocean level recorders to measure the changes.
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