Coastal protection

Sir, - From Lorna Siggins's recent report (Features, July 25th) one could easily get the impression, possibly unintended by the…

Sir, - From Lorna Siggins's recent report (Features, July 25th) one could easily get the impression, possibly unintended by the author, that no one in Ireland was aware of the advantages of "soft engineering" in regard to coastal protection until Dr Eric Bird came recently from Australia.

Certainly in the Geological Survey, where I worked until last year, we were well aware of the techniques involved. About a decade ago, a committee of county and city engineers with the co-operation of Forbairt produced a definitive report on the subject. Mr Phil Callery, county engineer of Co Wexford, chaired this group. He himself has been responsible for overseeing a most successful programme. The most notable element of it is probably the beach nourishment programme on Rosslare Strand.

Everything which Dr Bird is quoted as saying in the article in regard to "hard" coastal protection is true. However, that is only part of the story. It is not always possible to obtain a sufficiently large supply of sand for beach nourishment. Moreover, the money available is usually insufficient to carry out anything other than stop-gap work. The £10 million mentioned could be easily spent, within a year or two, on the coast of a single county.

Coastal management, rather than coastal protection, was the theme adopted by the above-mentioned committee. This recognises that in certain areas the economic and social benefits of spending large amounts of money will not be worthwhile. In the long run one must recognise that the coast, as it is at present, is only a stage in the development or evolution of the landscape. Resources can never be sufficient to keep the sea at bay forever. - Yours, etc.,

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Raymond Keary, Geologist/Oceanographer, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.