Friday, November 16, 2018

Fiji Coastal Hazards

Fiji's coastal erosion has became the latest coastal hazard affecting the Yasawa Islands. The coastal erosion exhibited here though was caused by human error. Many have gone out to blame rising sea levels, however, along the "Long Sandy Beach" humans installed jetties in an attempt to prevent certain coastal processes. Instead what happened was the shift in the coastal current direction as well as motions of sediments turning to the beach caused coastal erosion over a distance of a few tens of meters. Overall the jetties placed created a reversal of the direction of sand transport and coastal current.




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I also found that in a particular village in Fiji, coastal erosion has threatened homes and the village over the years. The coastline poses a threat to flood the village when it rains and villagers have found their own solution to prevent this. They alone built a makeshift 3 foot high seawall made of stones without any concrete to hold it down instead of waiting for the back tracked Fiji government to help. The Ra province village planted coconuts trees and coconuts along the seashore that had been starkTo further protect the village’s shoreline they also planted mangroves and officers from the Department of Forests are helping the villagers plant more mangroves.To further protect the seawall, sand bags were placed along the seawall to weaken the waves crashing on to the seawall. The villagers depend on their marine resources for their livelihood. The village is located in the Vatuira seascape. 
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sources: 
https://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=76564
http://fijisun.com.fj/2014/11/29/villagers-fight-coastal-erosion/