In summary, except for the Galveston seawall built at public expense, most 

 concrete shoreline protection structures erected on the Texas coast in recent years have 

 failed or have been severely damaged. These structures have finite lives, are expensive 

 to construct and maintain, and they commonly transfer the erosion problem elsewhere by 

 locally eliminating the sediment supply. For these and other reasons the U.S. Army 

 Corps of Engineers recommended the use of nonstructural methods, such as beach 

 nourishment, sand bypassing, and dune construction, when feasible for shoreline 

 stabilization projects. 



CONCLUSIONS 



Attempts to mitigate land loss through the use of permanent structures may not be 

 successful because (I) land losses in adjacent areas will probably accelerate, (2) initial 

 project costs plus maintenance expenditures may exceed the value of the protected 

 property, and (3) the temporary abatement of land loss and attendant sense of security 

 may inadvertently lead to further economic development and the potential for future 

 losses of even greater magnitude. This is analogous to flood-plain development 

 downstream of dams that impound upstream flood waters, but do not prevent severe 

 downstream flooding caused by intense rainfall throughout the drainage basin. 

 Implementation of multiple individual shoreline stabilization projects that (I) lack 

 integration into a more regional plan and (2) are designed without full knowledge of the 

 local geologic setting and coastal processes may prove to be inadequate as long-term 

 solutions to coastal land loss. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



Publication was authorized by the Director, Bureau of Economic Geology, The 

 University of Texas at Austin. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Emery, K.O. 1980. Relative sea levels from tide-gauge records. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 

 U.S.A. 77:6968-6972. 



Gagliano, S.M., K.J. Meyer-Arendt, K.M. Wicker. 1981. Land loss in the Mississippi 

 River Deltaic Plain. Trans. Gulf Coast Assoc. Geol. Soc. 31:295-300. 



Hicks, S.D. 1972. On the classification and trends of long period sea level series. Shore 

 and Beach 40:20-23. 



McGowen, J.H., and J.L. Brewton. 1975. Historical changes and related coastal 

 processes, gulf and mainland shorelines, Matagorda Bay area, Texas. Univ. of Texas at 

 Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology Spec. Publ. 72 pp. 



Morton, R.A. 1977. Historical shoreline changes and their causes, Texas gulf coast. 

 Trans. Gulf Coast Assoc. Geol. Soc. 27:352-364. 



Morton, R.A., and M.J. Pieper. 1975. Shoreline changes in the vicinity of Brazos River 

 Delta (San Luis to Brown Cedar Cut). Univ. of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic 



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