Coastal Protection. Recent development in the construction of coastal protection structures

In recent years, global warming has caused the sea level to rise. The river or coastal related disasters such as tsunami, cyclone and flood have also become higher in frequency and stronger in intensity. As one of the counter measures, some of the existing coastal protection structures need to be rehabilitated and new, stronger or taller coastal structures have to be built. How to construct coastal protection structures in a quicker and yet cost-effective way becomes a challenge to geotechnical engineers. The coastal protection structures can be classified into different categories according to the materials used. In this chapter, several new construction methods for coastal protection structures will be presented. These include the use of geo-tubes, geo-bags, geo-mattresses, geo-containers, precast concrete segments, suction caissons and assembly structures. The applications of some of these new techniques in the construction of coastal protection structures are illustrated using case histories.