Presentation Abstract

Along coastlines all over the world, land use development has created a need for holding the shoreline in a static position or at least minimizing the dynamic movement of the shoreline. Intense development along the shorelines of the Salish Sea from the 1950s to the 1970s was conducted with limited regulatory oversight or understanding of the cumulative impacts that housing, transportation corridors and other infrastructure would have on the marine environment. Over the last couple of decades it has become widely understood that the practice of using hard armor (timber walls, concrete walls and rockeries) to stabilize shorelines has degraded coastal processes, changed structural habitat and resulted in functional response from biological communities. In the effort to restore processes and ecosystem function, hard armoring is being replaced with soft shore protection. The HABITAT2 session has been convened to discuss the challenges faced by engineers and scientists designing soft shore stabilization and lessons learned from the design process through to construction. A few guidance documents for designing soft shore stabilization have been produced and discuss the design criteria and considerations such as Green Shores for Coastal Development Guide (Stewardship Centre for BC), Marine Shoreline Design Guidelines (WDFW), Soft Shoreline Stabilization Guide (Ecology) and Living Shorelines Guidance (NOAA). Although these are holistic general guidelines, the topographic complexity of the Salish Sea shorelines requires detailed project specific engineering designs, comprehensive construction specifications so that projects are built in accordance with the design and rigorous construction oversight to field fit and adjust the design for unpredictable factors. This presentation is an overview of some of the challenges associated with soft shore stabilization design touching on the ways the guidance documents are used in the design process. We will provide project examples showing some of the design constraints such as insufficient width of the backshore for full restoration, placement and quantities of large wood to be effective and transitions between soft shorelines and adjacent hard armor.

Session Title

Challenges and Solutions for Shoreline Armor Removal and Design of Soft Shore Protection: Part I

Keywords

Shoreline armor, Soft shore protection

Conference Track

SSE1: Habitat Restoration and Protection

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2018 : Seattle, Wash.)

Document Type

Event

SSEC Identifier

SSE1-447

Start Date

4-4-2018 1:30 PM

End Date

4-4-2018 1:45 PM

Type of Presentation

Oral

Genre/Form

presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Shorelines--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Riparian restoration--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Walls--Environmental aspects--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Apr 4th, 1:30 PM Apr 4th, 1:45 PM

Introduction to challenges and solutions for shoreline armor removal and design of soft shore protection

Along coastlines all over the world, land use development has created a need for holding the shoreline in a static position or at least minimizing the dynamic movement of the shoreline. Intense development along the shorelines of the Salish Sea from the 1950s to the 1970s was conducted with limited regulatory oversight or understanding of the cumulative impacts that housing, transportation corridors and other infrastructure would have on the marine environment. Over the last couple of decades it has become widely understood that the practice of using hard armor (timber walls, concrete walls and rockeries) to stabilize shorelines has degraded coastal processes, changed structural habitat and resulted in functional response from biological communities. In the effort to restore processes and ecosystem function, hard armoring is being replaced with soft shore protection. The HABITAT2 session has been convened to discuss the challenges faced by engineers and scientists designing soft shore stabilization and lessons learned from the design process through to construction. A few guidance documents for designing soft shore stabilization have been produced and discuss the design criteria and considerations such as Green Shores for Coastal Development Guide (Stewardship Centre for BC), Marine Shoreline Design Guidelines (WDFW), Soft Shoreline Stabilization Guide (Ecology) and Living Shorelines Guidance (NOAA). Although these are holistic general guidelines, the topographic complexity of the Salish Sea shorelines requires detailed project specific engineering designs, comprehensive construction specifications so that projects are built in accordance with the design and rigorous construction oversight to field fit and adjust the design for unpredictable factors. This presentation is an overview of some of the challenges associated with soft shore stabilization design touching on the ways the guidance documents are used in the design process. We will provide project examples showing some of the design constraints such as insufficient width of the backshore for full restoration, placement and quantities of large wood to be effective and transitions between soft shorelines and adjacent hard armor.