I STRONGLY DISAGREE! Being as famous as I am on UA-cam, I know that it gets hard to read every comment I get. I try my best, but I am just so famous, that I can't do it much longer. Sorry, dear bram
I've personally seen a beach disappear while I was growing up (in Sardinia, Italy). It wasn't a big beach in the first place but over the course of relatively few years it disappeared almost entirely, now most of it has been replaced by big rocks and concrete structures to prevent further erosion toward the beach houses. Another famous beach was also disappearing but this time they brought back a large amount of sand from the seafloor to the dismay of many local citizens because the new sand was much darker (practically black) than the original white one which ruined the aesthetics of the beach for a while
I also find it interesting to see when the sea loses. Some 10-15 years ago a large piece of driftwood got stuck near the shore and that started to slowly accumulate sand: www.google.com/maps/@55.8437107,10.0476763,470m/data=!3m1!1e3 It will probably take 20-50 years before it is genuine land.
Many years ago, the "old beach" at Port Burwell, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie disappeared literally overnight during a big storm. While the Great Lakes don't have measurable tides, there are other phenomena at work: The lake levels cycle from low to high over decades (right now they are at record highs) plus winds can "heap" water from one side to the other. A stiff south wind can make over a 2 meter difference in water level between Cleveland Ohio and Port Stanley, Ontario. It was such a storm that took the beach away, during a period when lake levels were high. Later, sand was trucked in and the beach was remade.
@@ivanskyttejrgensen7464, either the satellite view is much newer than the street view or it was taken at low tide; there is significantly less new beach visible in the street view.
@@questioner1596 Streetview isn't updated that often in danish rural areas, so I guess that the streetview for that patrcular road/beach is from 2009, and the satellite photo is more recent - probably 2018ish
Beach nourishment is the way the Netherlands keeps it coastline mostly constant. The interesting bit is that there are pretty much just 1 or 2 spots where it happens, and then natural currents are used to spread the sand along the whole coast line. Literally translated it's called the 'Sand Motor'. It's all very well engineered. A sea dike is only used in one spot along the north sea coast, near Petten - ironically where one of our nuclear reactors is situated.
If there's one thing Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur taught me, it's that there's no such thing as permanent and static solutions. Every problem has to be addressed and readdressed again and again. But as long as we have the energy and infrastructure to keep implementing dynamic solutions, then they will work indefinitely.
@@stevenclark2188 water is not always exactly 1kg per L, pressure, temperature and salt/ mineral content all play a role. Salt water is closer to 1.050kg/L and fresh water is closer to 0.950kg/L.
THANK YOU for mentioning retreat!! Most beaches could be left wild and zoning used to restrict permanent structures from being built too close. Much, much cheaper than trying to fight the sea. There’s plenty of room inland.
Better option is to simply stop subsidizing building on the beach and the 'problem' will take care of itself. There's a very good reason insurance companies are reluctant to insure properties on a beach unless they can charge extremely high premiums for the covered structures because erosion and hurricanes and such are a known danger along coastlines. Politicians call this reluctance a "market failure" and decide to "fix the problem" by creating an "Other People's Money" fund to cover the losses of people who build on the beach by taking money from people who are smart enough to not build on the beach. Shockingly where before structures on a beach were mostly limited to a handful of cheaply replaceable shacks, after creation of such a fund, structures built on beaches became more expensive and more common.
@@dorvinion And sadly, the people who can afford to build a beach mansion could easily just rebuild and the tax money could be used for more important things. Large companies that have a fleet of vehicles will normally "self-insure" for property damage since the cost of premiums would far exceed their cost of claims. I think they do carry insurance for personal injury though. Edit: no one should be able to build large permanent structures on barrier islands where the ocean beach is located. The islands serve a purpose to help protect the mainland.
@@swinde I'd rather they stop deciding what's "important" to spend money on and let me keep my share of the 'Federal keeping beaches built upon' fund. We got to the situation where beach houses are multi-million dollar palaces instead of cheap shanties precisely because politicians have a poor record of deciding what is and is not "important"
The ground you walk up on was once an ocean floor and one day will be again, if you begin today with port building then your grand ......................grand childeren can enjoy a few days of, because they won't have to build it them selves.
I would love to have seen more detail and a longer video, diving into some of the man-made structures that are used to reduce the energy of the oceans.
Pro Tip. For your home-made wave flume, use a 'sand' that has much lower density, and larger grain size (Acrylic, PVC, or other plastic beads with 1.2 - 1.4 specific gravity work well). This will accelerate sediment transport. Also note that lower wave frequencies will drive sediment up the beach, while higher frequencies will pull it back down. To demonstrate this, start with a shoal that crests just under-water. The waves, which carry net momentum shoreward (by virtue of 2nd order skewness) will create a beach.
Another tip: Make an actuator that pivots at the bottom of the tank, rather than at the top. This will produce waves with a structure closer to that of natural waves.
One point that was left out is the illegal mining of coastal or ocean ground sand. Huge amounts are used in construction sites especially in the developing countries. (This sand having too much salt creates it's own problems)
Wildwood, New Jersey is another exception. The beach keeps accumulating sand, so the piers are no longer over water. The incline is also very low, which makes for long, steady waves that are fun to ride :)
What's interesting about Flevoland in the Netherlands is that is human made. The province exists because the construction of huge dam called Afsluitdijk which reduce the amount of sea water converting the closest to land sea area into lakes, then the land is reclaimed from those lakes. It is extremely slow process, but that makes the Netherlands' land area grows without invading another country. I will be really interested to see how that actually works.
I've seen them actually reverse the trend however. In the original plan the whole of Zuiderzee would've been reclaimed, but it's now left as a nature preserve. The most prominent is Markermeer which is lined by Houtribdijk. Many of the unused lands have also been allowed to once again be inundated with water (becoming a marshland), since it helps the environment and it slows the land subsidence due to compaction from being in the dry state.
Actually in the long run the land is winning. Earth was once almost entirely covered by oceans with only a few small continental shields above the sea. The continents keep accumulating sediment and rock, growing over geologic time. There is also a slight bit of water escape to space from cumulonimbus clouds injecting water into the stratosphere where UVC light breaks water into O2 and H2 which then rises further and can eventually escape.
I'm graduated in architecture but I went back to school to study engineering, and the content of this channel has been quite informative. Today in class we saw exactly the theme presented in this video so I recommend this channel to them, I hope they find it as useful as I do.
🌊 Want to see more of that water demo? Watch the follow-up live stream here: ua-cam.com/video/9i_Q2MhKSlw/v-deo.html 🥑 Take advantage of my HelloFresh discount here: bit.ly/3biJN59
See also salt water fish tank wave generators - small pump that fills a container that tips into the tank to create turbulence in the water column - delivering nutrients to the filter feeders all over.
Thank you for taking the time to produce quality, informative content. I'm a nuclear engineering student, but this channel has definitely given me an appreciation for all of the civil engineers out there
Thank you, Grady. and Grady's wife, for your videos. Seeing you preparing meals in your cozy kitchen with the baby in the background reminds me of my own life at that point in time. You look like you are enjoying it as I did so many years ago. Keep up the good work!
Hey Grady, a nice one again. Thanks! True, liked the beach nourishment part in particular. In the Netherlands, as you know we do have to rely upon that to safeguard our coastline kind of. You're sure are familiar with it. The more recent approach we follow is to somewhere dump a significant volume of sand in front of the coastline and let the sea dynamics deal with in its best interest. The natural currents distribute and relocate the sand along the whole coast line and as such help to protect it further. It's called the 'Sand Motor' and you can clearly observe it on the map or from space, say in front of the coast between Rotterdam and The Hague. Today it is also used for recreational purposes as for wind- and kitesurfing, etc. As it is more safe to be there compared to the open sea.
I really like that you put the part where some attempts to prevent erosion, actually enhance the phenomenon. Mechanisms of sediment transport are relatively well studied in flumes but the whole puzzle is way bigger and isn't solved yet. You mentionned groynes to break longshore currents, longshore currents are another piece of the puzzle. This is a complex topic I've been working on for some years now and I'm glad you give it a good video.
Thank you for this clear introduction to the science behind coastal erosion. It makes me appreciate the beauty of beaches that evolve naturally, and how difficult it is for men and machines to emulate them.
Grady could have mentioned the effect of dams that permanently trap sediment from upland erosion from flowing to the ocean and settling on adjacent beaches. Also, dredging of river channels to facilitate shipping navigation to inland ports interrupts the natural sediment flow, especially here in SE Georgia (the US State).
Interesting point. In Louisiana there is a major subsidence problem due to upstream reservoirs that trap sediment(reduced sidement load) and levees that prevent the flooding that would naturally rebuild coastal lands. Oil and gas extraction also play major role, though the process itself is natural. Would love to see a video on Oysterbreaks -a type of breakwater that uses a special concrete (expanded shale w/o sand) and depends on biological growth to rebuild coastlines.
@@Jason-Spice Yep I live in Louisiana and this is the real reason we’re losing land so fast. The Mississippi has been replenishing our coast line for so long, but we put levees all around it so the sediment is just dumped into the gulf now.
Another solid addition to your video library. Always appreciate the well thought out content. We have the opposite problem in my jurisdiction. We manage a lagoon and river mouth where littoral transport, riverine sediment deposition, and high surf builds sand up along the beach and causes the closure of the river mouth which can lead to localized flooding. Balancing ingress/egress and safety of the community that is impacted by the flooding vs ecological and environmental concerns has been an interesting dilemma. We recently mechanically breached the lagoon due to high surf and the atmospheric river that just hit CA.
I did a semester of coastal geomorphology in uni and struggled with it, not because it was hard but because it was taught so boringly that staying awake in class was a challenge. Wish I'd had your videos back then Grady, you make any topic easy to watch and understand, keep it up :)
Maybe the purpose of any lectures at the University level and of a show (excellent BTW) are not the same? Maybe you were not interested by geology at first ...
I was expecting the prime solution to this problem to be more elegant. Not just taking the sand and putting back. Interesting as always, i really enjoy watching these vids, especially when water is involved, love it.
I wonder how Rio de Janeiro handles coastal erosion, specially Ipanema beach has huge waves and its already a narrow beach. Also, how many small deserted islands are dissapearing due to erosion?
Quite off topic but i had to say this: Your wife has one of the sweetest voices, if not thé sweetest voice i've ever heard. Oh and thanks for the video, very educational.
I love this channel's solution oriented approach. Define the problem, yes, but then solve it (within the time and budget constraints of the entities affected). Kudos!
I dono why but apart from being informative, educational watching his videos is very calming. I felt relaxed and you get this sense that he is someone who knows what he is talking about. Not some dude who pulled points off the internet.
Well done . Often overlooked is what I call the wet mobile abrasive factor . I refer to smooth river stones that have been smoothed greatly by moving water containing suspended grit . I too have spoken on planting mangroves as a natural living barrier . Living in south Louisiana , erosion is a huge issue .
Fascinating topic! The barrier islands of North Carolina are a great study in the management of coastal erosion. Prior to the state's enactment of sensible shoreline management, developers and communities were busy trying to stop the ocean from gobbling up their ocean front property. The more they built hardened anti-erosion structures, the faster the state's beautiful beaches were disappearing. Finally, during an unusual period of time when the state's political winds aligned with sound science rather than just the bottom line of development companies, an extensive management plan was enacted by the legislature. Basically, they took their lead from how nature manages herself along the vast undeveloped expanses of the Outer Banks and other undeveloped ocean front areas. Radical set-back rules for buildings were phased in along developed beaches and landowners were prohibited from hardening their ocean front. The result has been beaches that are now MUCH more stable. They are also much more robust when confronted by hurricanes. Geologically, these areas are THE most dynamic on earth. Building on sand a few feet from the ocean's edge makes no more sense than building on the slopes of an active volcano!
Where does the sand come from? I thought it was ground up shells and rocks that got deposited by the sea. If erosion is mainly removing the shore, how did it get deposited in the first place?
Sand comes from all different types of source rocks. Like Lucario said, sand is deposited mostly from rivers that carry sediments down from higher elevation source rocks. Glaciers can also dump huge amounts of sediments (a much slower process than rivers) when they melt. Have you ever seen a beach composed of pebbles or slightly larger stones with little to no sand? Over time, the wave action will break those rocks down into finer grains and eventually sand. Sand is also highly affected by wind. "Sand" formed by shells, coral, bones, plankton, fish poop, etc will over time become more like mud and slowly fall to the ocean floor, and may become limestone in the right depositional environment.
We have mangrove forest near here, and so far they're the best barrier against coastal erosion. Unfortunately, not many people like to see their white-sand beach turns into muddy mangrove 😂
@@randomuser5443 it does. Think of it like… small fruit, slowly growing into sapling while still being attached to the tree, then dropped down when it's already big enough.
Here in the Netherlands for years now a massive project is ongoing to enlarge the beaches and increase the height of the dunes to cope with the rising sea levels. It seen coastal areas change completely where once you would walk on the road and look out over the sea, it is now a massive dune.
So, I’m from the Great Lakes region and have always noticed the period difference between waves in the Great Lakes vs. Oceans. Do the closer together waves affect how engineers would design structures to minimize erosion?
As usual always highly informative. In the 80s and 90s LA coastal homes would routinely get battered by storms and storm waves crashing against their "bay" windows and sliding glass doors. I think nearly all of them had to be rebuilt or relocate. It's always romantic to live on the coast until you have to quite literally weather the storms.
I live in mainland away from sea , rivers or any other water bodies after watching your video I will think twice before buying or developing a property near water bodies.
That was interesting. I always like the demos that you create for us. Also, this is the only channel where I actually enjoy the sponsor segment at the end.
6:25 Wooo Portsmouth! Seeing the coastal defences get upgraded over the past year or so has been really interesting to watch, especially as a Mechanical Engineering student.
Hi Grady! Would you be interested in doing a video going in to more nature-based solutions to beach erosion, not just mangroves? I'd love to see for example, how a dynamic provides a better match between particle size and wave energy to slow down sediment loss. Thank you for so many wonderful videos!
@@matthiaslipinsky501 but who cares really ? Why is this always a issue whenever a video has imperial measurements? Also if any one was really interested they would know the US uses the metric system in many day-to-day ways.
thank you so much. you help me so much with a project I have to do. I was so lost because I never knew anything out the ocean life or waves. The cause and effect of erosion. I will be using your video as resource. You seem to have beautiful family, thank you.
Hey! I think you should look into a pretty new way we are dealing with erosion down here on the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a structure called a WADs and Living Shorelines Inc makes some really cool ones. The idea is to not block the waves but to diffuse the energy. The added benefit as well is it is proven to add sediment back to the shoreline over time. The inside of the WADs also allow for marine animals to thrive. In my opinion it’s the ultimate way to protect out vulnerable shores!
Because governments have created "Other Peoples Money" funds, taken from people smart enough to not build on a beach, to cover the losses of those people foolish enough to build on the beach, and to pay for erosion controls.
OKAY so big question here.... I grew up in a beach town in MA called Rockport. Everyone there is very familiar with how our beaches change year to year. We have all seen our sandy beaches erode, but sometimes we see our beached get HUGE amounts of sand deposited. You made it clear how the erosion aspect works, BUT WHY DO SOME STORMS DEPOSIT WAY MORE SAND THAN BEFORE THE STORM???
Great video. I really liked seeing Mr Practical Engineering in his home environment with his long suffering partner :) I don't know why but I always assumed he had a mansion on the beach (erosion resistant of course). Was nice to see he's just a normal guy actually like the rest of us. We should be grateful he's posting videos at all with the little one about.
Coastal erosion is an amazing subject and fun to read about, thanks for making a video about it! So many different areas to look into with this subject.
Man I just love seeing a new upload. I love everything engineering and you do such an awesome job presenting and talking about the subject. I just wish u and the family a happy safe new year and new uploads 🤙🤙
Hoping that someone reads this 7+ months out. Beach nourishment can go so much further in-depth than this video goes. The slope of the beach prior to the shoreline drastically changes how and where the waves break at. This is why different beaches will have different breaking waves. When the waves break closer to shore (termed surging or shore-break waves) will cause faster erosion and present a hazard to those in the water close to shore. Please do not let this take away from how well this video explained the basics of coastal erosion. I just thought I would add a little more information.
thanks grady. coastal engineering is an often overlooked subfield of civil engineering. good to learn about this from you, I barely knew about it in college
I'm studying environmental engineering right now because I want to make a career out of designing green infrastructure. I've really enjoyed the emphasis that the last couple of your videos have put on respecting and recognizing the utility of the natural environment i.e. managed retreat/planting mangroves. I'm looking forward to more of this going forward. Maybe we can see a video about wetlands as infrastructure like in Norfolk, Virginia? Or a video on using a designed environment to clean up industrial waste like in Butte, Montana? The great things about these is that they solve like 5 problems at once.
I used to own a beach-front home in NE Florida. My neighbors and I asked Florida what could be done about the erosion. We followed their advice and erected a fence that kept beach users and their vehicles out of the dunes to prevent damage to the natural vegetation. After six months the beach and dunes had grown, and and we moved the fence further toward the ocean. After another six months with the beach and the dunes still growing, we decided to halt the process because the dunes had grown several feet in height and it was difficult to see the ocean over them. The Florida DNR was spot-on with their advice, "Keep people off the dunes to protect the vegetation, and the dunes and beach will acreed."
Here in Indonesia there is alot of lands already claimed by sea. This is one of example of it -6.030285, 106.520971 on map Some times you can see an abandoned building in middle of coast
If we humans weren’t trying to control/mitigate/reverse/ or control that shore erosion what would ultimately be the result? Would all continents become smaller and smaller islands? Or is there a natural factor that would mitigate total erosion of land?
I absolutely love your content and thank you for this excellent video! However, I must note that your background music is so addictive and I wanna listen to a 10 Hour Loop of it because it relaxes me and I feel like I could fall asleep with it playing! 😅
GF: Wanna go to the beach for a swim?
Me: No...but I will go to witness the endless battle between land and sea
Well the sea will win when the earth finally cools
LMAO
@@thrifty1783 But then the sea becomes ice, or land. Land wins.
Groudon always loses in the end.
Oop 😳
Rust never sleeps. Neither does erosion. And in the end, Gravity always wins.
I STRONGLY DISAGREE! Being as famous as I am on UA-cam, I know that it gets hard to read every comment I get. I try my best, but I am just so famous, that I can't do it much longer. Sorry, dear bram
Gravity never sleeps, neither does rust. and in the end erosion always wins.
*Enthropy entered the chat
*Entropy always win
@@odd_shoe same idea! :)
Mrs. Practical Engineer going wild with the Dutch angles lol
Hitchcock would approve.
@@bstudentoflife And Alton Brown.
Trying to get to the sea level by imitating the Dutch.
@DignusFerox And the Dutch? XD
only the dutch manage to out smart the sea
I've personally seen a beach disappear while I was growing up (in Sardinia, Italy). It wasn't a big beach in the first place but over the course of relatively few years it disappeared almost entirely, now most of it has been replaced by big rocks and concrete structures to prevent further erosion toward the beach houses.
Another famous beach was also disappearing but this time they brought back a large amount of sand from the seafloor to the dismay of many local citizens because the new sand was much darker (practically black) than the original white one which ruined the aesthetics of the beach for a while
I also find it interesting to see when the sea loses. Some 10-15 years ago a large piece of driftwood got stuck near the shore and that started to slowly accumulate sand: www.google.com/maps/@55.8437107,10.0476763,470m/data=!3m1!1e3 It will probably take 20-50 years before it is genuine land.
Many years ago, the "old beach" at Port Burwell, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie disappeared literally overnight during a big storm. While the Great Lakes don't have measurable tides, there are other phenomena at work: The lake levels cycle from low to high over decades (right now they are at record highs) plus winds can "heap" water from one side to the other. A stiff south wind can make over a 2 meter difference in water level between Cleveland Ohio and Port Stanley, Ontario. It was such a storm that took the beach away, during a period when lake levels were high. Later, sand was trucked in and the beach was remade.
A darker coloured sand instead of no beach at all? People always find something to complain about.
@@ivanskyttejrgensen7464, either the satellite view is much newer than the street view or it was taken at low tide; there is significantly less new beach visible in the street view.
@@questioner1596 Streetview isn't updated that often in danish rural areas, so I guess that the streetview for that patrcular road/beach is from 2009, and the satellite photo is more recent - probably 2018ish
Beach nourishment is the way the Netherlands keeps it coastline mostly constant. The interesting bit is that there are pretty much just 1 or 2 spots where it happens, and then natural currents are used to spread the sand along the whole coast line. Literally translated it's called the 'Sand Motor'.
It's all very well engineered. A sea dike is only used in one spot along the north sea coast, near Petten - ironically where one of our nuclear reactors is situated.
But when possible dunes are used to stop the sea. Grass is planted on top to keep it from blowing away, but you probably know that
It is important for the structural integrity of the land near the nuclear reactor to be sound, I suppose? So not that ironic? ^^
Nope that seadike is re-enforced with sand in 2014 similar to the concept of the Sand Motor.
That's amazing, I wouldn't have imagined that the currents can be used to spread the sand
If there's one thing Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur taught me, it's that there's no such thing as permanent and static solutions. Every problem has to be addressed and readdressed again and again. But as long as we have the energy and infrastructure to keep implementing dynamic solutions, then they will work indefinitely.
"Waves are destructive because water is heavy" now joins "you gotta have dirt under your concrete" as my favorite Practical Engineering quotes.
No mention of water's weight, which I remember from the imperial days as being 62.5 pounds per cubic foot.
@@loginregional or in metric about 1kg per 1L of water
@@Jesus_friggin_christ About? That's one well-hedged bet.
@@stevenclark2188 water is not always exactly 1kg per L, pressure, temperature and salt/ mineral content all play a role. Salt water is closer to 1.050kg/L and fresh water is closer to 0.950kg/L.
@@Jesus_friggin_christ Yep, but the standard for the Kilogram is 1L of water at 4°C and at normal pressure condition
yeah yeah yeah erosion. Let's see Grady cook!
Show us those unique angles!
THANK YOU for mentioning retreat!!
Most beaches could be left wild and zoning used to restrict permanent structures from being built too close. Much, much cheaper than trying to fight the sea.
There’s plenty of room inland.
Unless you're Dutch or Singaporean
Better option is to simply stop subsidizing building on the beach and the 'problem' will take care of itself.
There's a very good reason insurance companies are reluctant to insure properties on a beach unless they can charge extremely high premiums for the covered structures because erosion and hurricanes and such are a known danger along coastlines.
Politicians call this reluctance a "market failure" and decide to "fix the problem" by creating an "Other People's Money" fund to cover the losses of people who build on the beach by taking money from people who are smart enough to not build on the beach.
Shockingly where before structures on a beach were mostly limited to a handful of cheaply replaceable shacks, after creation of such a fund, structures built on beaches became more expensive and more common.
@@dorvinion
And sadly, the people who can afford to build a beach mansion could easily just rebuild and the tax money could be used for more important things. Large companies that have a fleet of vehicles will normally "self-insure" for property damage since the cost of premiums would far exceed their cost of claims. I think they do carry insurance for personal injury though.
Edit: no one should be able to build large permanent structures on barrier islands where the ocean beach is located. The islands serve a purpose to help protect the mainland.
@@swinde I'd rather they stop deciding what's "important" to spend money on and let me keep my share of the 'Federal keeping beaches built upon' fund.
We got to the situation where beach houses are multi-million dollar palaces instead of cheap shanties precisely because politicians have a poor record of deciding what is and is not "important"
being near to the sea is a huge economic advantage, and sadly when governments see a revenue nothing can stop them
This is almost as good as my favorite channel, impractical engineering
You’ve been watching my construction projects?
Or unreal engineering
@@notasgood459 I love that game!
As a coder, I often struggle with my relationship to the C.
@@rhekman read your message perfect synchron with him saying it😂
Me, swiss: "Hmm maybe I should start building port infrastructure."
The ground you walk up on was once an ocean floor and one day will be again, if you begin today with port building then your grand ......................grand childeren can enjoy a few days of, because they won't have to build it them selves.
Thats a great 10000 year plan. Hahaha.
@@1911Zoey 10,000,000 year plan*
We need to be building offshore ports. We can stop destroying our coast lines and gain a security layer.
@@JoeOvercoat what a terrible idea lmao
Having lived and worked near the Pacific Ocean for years, I think your post is a great reminder that the ocean is incredibly powerful and relentless.
I would love to have seen more detail and a longer video, diving into some of the man-made structures that are used to reduce the energy of the oceans.
I would like to see feature-length versions of all of Grady's videos
He has a video about those structure s already.
an ongoing battle: the oceans vs humans
Pro Tip. For your home-made wave flume, use a 'sand' that has much lower density, and larger grain size (Acrylic, PVC, or other plastic beads with 1.2 - 1.4 specific gravity work well). This will accelerate sediment transport. Also note that lower wave frequencies will drive sediment up the beach, while higher frequencies will pull it back down. To demonstrate this, start with a shoal that crests just under-water. The waves, which carry net momentum shoreward (by virtue of 2nd order skewness) will create a beach.
Another tip: Make an actuator that pivots at the bottom of the tank, rather than at the top. This will produce waves with a structure closer to that of natural waves.
The direction of sand transport is not solely related to the wave periods but to degree of breaking as well.
Huh?
One point that was left out is the illegal mining of coastal or ocean ground sand. Huge amounts are used in construction sites especially in the developing countries. (This sand having too much salt creates it's own problems)
Are you referring to China’s artificial islands?
@@TheRealNobodyButu Not directly. There is a good Arte documentation about mostly Morocco.
@@MrSaNF cool
🏝🏜⌛🏗🪟 🤔Sands are very different and special.
Broady: The see is almost always winning.
The Netherlands: Almost!
Also a bunch of places in Eastern Europe
Wildwood, New Jersey is another exception. The beach keeps accumulating sand, so the piers are no longer over water. The incline is also very low, which makes for long, steady waves that are fun to ride :)
What's interesting about Flevoland in the Netherlands is that is human made. The province exists because the construction of huge dam called Afsluitdijk which reduce the amount of sea water converting the closest to land sea area into lakes, then the land is reclaimed from those lakes. It is extremely slow process, but that makes the Netherlands' land area grows without invading another country. I will be really interested to see how that actually works.
I've seen them actually reverse the trend however. In the original plan the whole of Zuiderzee would've been reclaimed, but it's now left as a nature preserve. The most prominent is Markermeer which is lined by Houtribdijk. Many of the unused lands have also been allowed to once again be inundated with water (becoming a marshland), since it helps the environment and it slows the land subsidence due to compaction from being in the dry state.
Actually in the long run the land is winning. Earth was once almost entirely covered by oceans with only a few small continental shields above the sea. The continents keep accumulating sediment and rock, growing over geologic time. There is also a slight bit of water escape to space from cumulonimbus clouds injecting water into the stratosphere where UVC light breaks water into O2 and H2 which then rises further and can eventually escape.
I'm graduated in architecture but I went back to school to study engineering, and the content of this channel has been quite informative.
Today in class we saw exactly the theme presented in this video so I recommend this channel to them, I hope they find it as useful as I do.
🌊 Want to see more of that water demo? Watch the follow-up live stream here: ua-cam.com/video/9i_Q2MhKSlw/v-deo.html
🥑 Take advantage of my HelloFresh discount here: bit.ly/3biJN59
👍🏼 Actually enjoyed the commercial! (The rest was great too!) 😎
That NOAA sea level prediction is based on very flawed climate models. Thus that information is mute.
See also salt water fish tank wave generators - small pump that fills a container that tips into the tank to create turbulence in the water column - delivering nutrients to the filter feeders all over.
hey man , i genuinely enjoyed all the unique angles
@@DawsonTyson That information isn’t mute. I heard it.
Thank you for taking the time to produce quality, informative content. I'm a nuclear engineering student, but this channel has definitely given me an appreciation for all of the civil engineers out there
The image in the minute 3:37 is Badalona (Barcelona) my hometown! And we have really big problems in the bech with the storms. I love this video
Thank you, Grady. and Grady's wife, for your videos. Seeing you preparing meals in your cozy kitchen with the baby in the background reminds me of my own life at that point in time. You look like you are enjoying it as I did so many years ago. Keep up the good work!
"it might not seem like it, but there's an endless battle going on between land and sea"
i know that, i play pokemon
Groudon > Kyogre
@@twitertaker bad opinion
@@twitertaker Rayquaza slaps them both
@@thehistory9187 Air slaps water and fire and land.
@@Speed001 the avatar
Hey Grady, a nice one again. Thanks!
True, liked the beach nourishment part in particular. In the Netherlands, as you know we do have to rely upon that to safeguard our coastline kind of. You're sure are familiar with it. The more recent approach we follow is to somewhere dump a significant volume of sand in front of the coastline and let the sea dynamics deal with in its best interest. The natural currents distribute and relocate the sand along the whole coast line and as such help to protect it further. It's called the 'Sand Motor' and you can clearly observe it on the map or from space, say in front of the coast between Rotterdam and The Hague. Today it is also used for recreational purposes as for wind- and kitesurfing, etc. As it is more safe to be there compared to the open sea.
i dont normally comment, but i followed you for a longer time now. Congrats on your child and greetings from germany. love your content :)
I really like that you put the part where some attempts to prevent erosion, actually enhance the phenomenon.
Mechanisms of sediment transport are relatively well studied in flumes but the whole puzzle is way bigger and isn't solved yet. You mentionned groynes to break longshore currents, longshore currents are another piece of the puzzle.
This is a complex topic I've been working on for some years now and I'm glad you give it a good video.
Seeing you cook is like seeing a teacher outside of school.
Thank you for this clear introduction to the science behind coastal erosion. It makes me appreciate the beauty of beaches that evolve naturally, and how difficult it is for men and machines to emulate them.
Grady could have mentioned the effect of dams that permanently trap sediment from upland erosion from flowing to the ocean and settling on adjacent beaches. Also, dredging of river channels to facilitate shipping navigation to inland ports interrupts the natural sediment flow, especially here in SE Georgia (the US State).
Interesting point. In Louisiana there is a major subsidence problem due to upstream reservoirs that trap sediment(reduced sidement load) and levees that prevent the flooding that would naturally rebuild coastal lands. Oil and gas extraction also play major role, though the process itself is natural.
Would love to see a video on Oysterbreaks -a type of breakwater that uses a special concrete (expanded shale w/o sand) and depends on biological growth to rebuild coastlines.
@@Jason-Spice Yep I live in Louisiana and this is the real reason we’re losing land so fast. The Mississippi has been replenishing our coast line for so long, but we put levees all around it so the sediment is just dumped into the gulf now.
Another solid addition to your video library. Always appreciate the well thought out content. We have the opposite problem in my jurisdiction. We manage a lagoon and river mouth where littoral transport, riverine sediment deposition, and high surf builds sand up along the beach and causes the closure of the river mouth which can lead to localized flooding. Balancing ingress/egress and safety of the community that is impacted by the flooding vs ecological and environmental concerns has been an interesting dilemma. We recently mechanically breached the lagoon due to high surf and the atmospheric river that just hit CA.
Grady's new YT channel: "Practical Cooking" ...
Every time i see your video i realise how great you are at making people interested before actually discussing about certain topic.
I did a semester of coastal geomorphology in uni and struggled with it, not because it was hard but because it was taught so boringly that staying awake in class was a challenge.
Wish I'd had your videos back then Grady, you make any topic easy to watch and understand, keep it up :)
Maybe the purpose of any lectures at the University level and of a show (excellent BTW) are not the same? Maybe you were not interested by geology at first ...
I was expecting the prime solution to this problem to be more elegant. Not just taking the sand and putting back.
Interesting as always, i really enjoy watching these vids, especially when water is involved, love it.
I wonder how Rio de Janeiro handles coastal erosion, specially Ipanema beach has huge waves and its already a narrow beach.
Also, how many small deserted islands are dissapearing due to erosion?
Beach nourishment. Rio has some of the biggest and strongest sand delivery boats in the world.
Your narration is always so eloquent. I can't imagine how much work goes into putting the script together
“Water is heavy” - Practical Engineering, 2021. Seriously though, great video!
Quite off topic but i had to say this: Your wife has one of the sweetest voices, if not thé sweetest voice i've ever heard. Oh and thanks for the video, very educational.
"Just like campfires, we are drawn to the coast" - I've never seen my campfire attempt to migrate coastward though........
😂😂😂 I thought exactly the same!!
Why is this so funny?😂
I love this channel's solution oriented approach. Define the problem, yes, but then solve it (within the time and budget constraints of the entities affected). Kudos!
This is giving me geography class nostalgia
I dono why but apart from being informative, educational watching his videos is very calming. I felt relaxed and you get this sense that he is someone who knows what he is talking about. Not some dude who pulled points off the internet.
By the way, for those looking to learn more about erosion control, it's spelled "groyne".
Thank you. I don't wish to confuse the algorithms more than I have already.
Well done . Often overlooked is what I call the wet mobile abrasive factor . I refer to smooth river stones that have been smoothed greatly by moving water containing suspended grit . I too have spoken on planting mangroves as a natural living barrier . Living in south Louisiana , erosion is a huge issue .
6:52 Where is that?
I'm also looking for that!
I want to know that too
Also looking
Fascinating topic! The barrier islands of North Carolina are a great study in the management of coastal erosion. Prior to the state's enactment of sensible shoreline management, developers and communities were busy trying to stop the ocean from gobbling up their ocean front property. The more they built hardened anti-erosion structures, the faster the state's beautiful beaches were disappearing. Finally, during an unusual period of time when the state's political winds aligned with sound science rather than just the bottom line of development companies, an extensive management plan was enacted by the legislature. Basically, they took their lead from how nature manages herself along the vast undeveloped expanses of the Outer Banks and other undeveloped ocean front areas. Radical set-back rules for buildings were phased in along developed beaches and landowners were prohibited from hardening their ocean front. The result has been beaches that are now MUCH more stable. They are also much more robust when confronted by hurricanes. Geologically, these areas are THE most dynamic on earth. Building on sand a few feet from the ocean's edge makes no more sense than building on the slopes of an active volcano!
Where does the sand come from? I thought it was ground up shells and rocks that got deposited by the sea. If erosion is mainly removing the shore, how did it get deposited in the first place?
Sand comes from river sediments, the crumbling of cliffs, breakdown of coral and shells and the digestion of some marine animals.
Sand comes from all different types of source rocks. Like Lucario said, sand is deposited mostly from rivers that carry sediments down from higher elevation source rocks. Glaciers can also dump huge amounts of sediments (a much slower process than rivers) when they melt. Have you ever seen a beach composed of pebbles or slightly larger stones with little to no sand? Over time, the wave action will break those rocks down into finer grains and eventually sand. Sand is also highly affected by wind. "Sand" formed by shells, coral, bones, plankton, fish poop, etc will over time become more like mud and slowly fall to the ocean floor, and may become limestone in the right depositional environment.
The info in this video is so interesting and thought provoking. Thank you.
Also, your family is so cute!!
4:58 Hel Peninsula in Poland (Baltic Sea coast). It's 34 km long.
Please never change your intro and background music. Something about it is very....calming
We have mangrove forest near here, and so far they're the best barrier against coastal erosion.
Unfortunately, not many people like to see their white-sand beach turns into muddy mangrove 😂
I can’t remember if the trees produce fruit
Cow patties does wonders for the unsightly mangrove mud.
@@randomuser5443 it does.
Think of it like… small fruit, slowly growing into sapling while still being attached to the tree, then dropped down when it's already big enough.
Here in the Netherlands for years now a massive project is ongoing to enlarge the beaches and increase the height of the dunes to cope with the rising sea levels. It seen coastal areas change completely where once you would walk on the road and look out over the sea, it is now a massive dune.
So, I’m from the Great Lakes region and have always noticed the period difference between waves in the Great Lakes vs. Oceans. Do the closer together waves affect how engineers would design structures to minimize erosion?
Ned to plat more mangroves in Great Lakes bra
Theres something soothing and calming about your videos, love em.
Haha such an engineer response: I don't want any unique angles, horizontal is best
As usual always highly informative. In the 80s and 90s LA coastal homes would routinely get battered by storms and storm waves crashing against their "bay" windows and sliding glass doors. I think nearly all of them had to be rebuilt or relocate. It's always romantic to live on the coast until you have to quite literally weather the storms.
I live in mainland away from sea , rivers or any other water bodies after watching your video I will think twice before buying or developing a property near water bodies.
Even your ads are wholesome. I appreciate that.
Finally realised that Grady and Destin from Smarter Every Day are actually the same person with or without a wig depending on the channel ! :)
I'm not studying engineering or anything. But I find the science interesting and satisfying. Great content quality!
One thing for sure, life’s a Beach.
A wave hello
That was interesting. I always like the demos that you create for us. Also, this is the only channel where I actually enjoy the sponsor segment at the end.
seeing the title, I thought this was going to be about sand theft for concrete. But this was interesting nevertheless
6:25 Wooo Portsmouth! Seeing the coastal defences get upgraded over the past year or so has been really interesting to watch, especially as a Mechanical Engineering student.
Tide goes in, tide goes out. You can’t explain that
Go back to grade school. Tides are explained there. Hint: it's astronomical.
@@frankmiller95 it's a quote from the mouth of national embarrassment Bill O'Reilly when he was attempting to disprove some scientist on his show
Hi Grady! Would you be interested in doing a video going in to more nature-based solutions to beach erosion, not just mangroves? I'd love to see for example, how a dynamic provides a better match between particle size and wave energy to slow down sediment loss. Thank you for so many wonderful videos!
id get the hellow fresh stuff but the food will rot by the time it gets across the ocean i assume
Nice video! Also, congratulations on the addition to your family! Thanks again!
Grady: 3 feet
Me: ...
Grady: thats almost a meter.
Me: Oh thank you.
and?
@@odemata87 and what?
@@kurtsteiner7310 your comment. What was the gist of it?
@@odemata87
That he grew upmin one of the two only countries who are still not using the metrical system: the united states and bangladesh.
@@matthiaslipinsky501 but who cares really ? Why is this always a issue whenever a video has imperial measurements? Also if any one was really interested they would know the US uses the metric system in many day-to-day ways.
That time-lapse of the waves at the beach at 2:18 was terrifying at first , until i realized it was a time-lapse
Video: Why beaches disappear?
Me thinking: *Because they ain't loyal bruv*
Wow, I haven't checked in for a while and these have gotten even better, what great production quality!
You seem like the guy that had a lot of Lego Technics as a kid.
Excellent videos!! I'm a construction management student and I enjoy learning from your videos.
"Claimed by the Sea" is the name of my Kaiju themed romance novel.
thank you so much. you help me so much with a project I have to do. I was so lost because I never knew anything out the ocean life or waves. The cause and effect of erosion. I will be using your video as resource. You seem to have beautiful family, thank you.
I misread the title
For me it was because I didn't make enoughe money. Lol
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 lol
He compared beaches to bitches
Hey! I think you should look into a pretty new way we are dealing with erosion down here on the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a structure called a WADs and Living Shorelines Inc makes some really cool ones. The idea is to not block the waves but to diffuse the energy. The added benefit as well is it is proven to add sediment back to the shoreline over time. The inside of the WADs also allow for marine animals to thrive. In my opinion it’s the ultimate way to protect out vulnerable shores!
I still don't understand why people continue to take the risk of making their homes on the edge of the sea or a waterway.
Because governments have created "Other Peoples Money" funds, taken from people smart enough to not build on a beach, to cover the losses of those people foolish enough to build on the beach, and to pay for erosion controls.
you know what happens if humans found some large flat land, and most of it can be found on waterfront areas.
People continue to build houses near forests, too. Knowing full well it burns every 10 to 20 years. They're nice temporary homes, and that's fine.
Grady is the most wholesome guy.
l really need to stop watching youtube and get to class
OKAY so big question here.... I grew up in a beach town in MA called Rockport. Everyone there is very familiar with how our beaches change year to year. We have all seen our sandy beaches erode, but sometimes we see our beached get HUGE amounts of sand deposited. You made it clear how the erosion aspect works, BUT WHY DO SOME STORMS DEPOSIT WAY MORE SAND THAN BEFORE THE STORM???
Beaches also disappear because mankind loves to build with concrete! And sand is an essential part of concrete 🙄
Wrong type of sand. Beach sand makes for terrible concrete
Great video. I really liked seeing Mr Practical Engineering in his home environment with his long suffering partner :) I don't know why but I always assumed he had a mansion on the beach (erosion resistant of course). Was nice to see he's just a normal guy actually like the rest of us. We should be grateful he's posting videos at all with the little one about.
Coastal erosion is an amazing subject and fun to read about, thanks for making a video about it! So many different areas to look into with this subject.
Man I just love seeing a new upload. I love everything engineering and you do such an awesome job presenting and talking about the subject. I just wish u and the family a happy safe new year and new uploads 🤙🤙
I really like the PVC and sponge mangrove forest. Excellent demonstration
Hoping that someone reads this 7+ months out. Beach nourishment can go so much further in-depth than this video goes. The slope of the beach prior to the shoreline drastically changes how and where the waves break at. This is why different beaches will have different breaking waves. When the waves break closer to shore (termed surging or shore-break waves) will cause faster erosion and present a hazard to those in the water close to shore.
Please do not let this take away from how well this video explained the basics of coastal erosion. I just thought I would add a little more information.
what an excellent, informative video, Our host has a very relaxing yet engaging manner, subscribed
That wave tank demonstration was great!
Very well put together video: informative along with quality editing. Thank you!
thanks grady. coastal engineering is an often overlooked subfield of civil engineering. good to learn about this from you, I barely knew about it in college
Hey Grady, I was surprised not to find this episode over on Nebula when I went looking. Love your thoughtful content!
It is there. I release there one day before it goes live on UA-cam.
I'm studying environmental engineering right now because I want to make a career out of designing green infrastructure. I've really enjoyed the emphasis that the last couple of your videos have put on respecting and recognizing the utility of the natural environment i.e. managed retreat/planting mangroves. I'm looking forward to more of this going forward. Maybe we can see a video about wetlands as infrastructure like in Norfolk, Virginia? Or a video on using a designed environment to clean up industrial waste like in Butte, Montana? The great things about these is that they solve like 5 problems at once.
I used to own a beach-front home in NE Florida. My neighbors and I asked Florida what could be done about the erosion. We followed their advice and erected a fence that kept beach users and their vehicles out of the dunes to prevent damage to the natural vegetation. After six months the beach and dunes had grown, and and we moved the fence further toward the ocean. After another six months with the beach and the dunes still growing, we decided to halt the process because the dunes had grown several feet in height and it was difficult to see the ocean over them. The Florida DNR was spot-on with their advice, "Keep people off the dunes to protect the vegetation, and the dunes and beach will acreed."
Top quality YT channel 😎
Another enjoyable and informative episode! I appreciate how GREAT your models are at explaining the subject matter. Thanks!
Here in Indonesia there is alot of lands already claimed by sea.
This is one of example of it -6.030285, 106.520971 on map
Some times you can see an abandoned building in middle of coast
Yet another great video. Thank you for providing your content over all those years! :)
Thanks very much for this explanation video on coastal erosion! It is very engaging and helpful for my Y6 Geo class on this topic.
If we humans weren’t trying to control/mitigate/reverse/ or control that shore erosion what would ultimately be the result? Would all continents become smaller and smaller islands? Or is there a natural factor that would mitigate total erosion of land?
I absolutely love your content and thank you for this excellent video!
However, I must note that your background music is so addictive and I wanna listen to a 10 Hour Loop of it because it relaxes me and I feel like I could fall asleep with it playing! 😅