Introduction
After the recent floods all around the world that have resulted in destroyed properties and great causalities, people have started questioning the efficiency of the old outdated method of dredging. With the rapid development of hydrology, or the study of water flow, scientists have found several alternatives for dredging. I purpose of this essay is to scan for alternative, more effective and beneficial methods and compare and evaluate them with dredging. These include natural, soft engineering and hard engineering methods.
Why dredging is not the best solution
“Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies” (National Ocean Service, 2014). According to Coghlan (2014), dredging is not a very efficient solution for flood control as it is considered to be expensive, in addition to the fact that it affects the quality of the water by releasing unwanted materials from the bottom of the river, which in turn has an effect on the marine environment. Moreover, dredging is not perceived as a very effective solution in the long run and it requires regular and consistent maintenance. Hydrologists have conducted studies on the effects of dredging and results show that even if rivers were dredged, floods would still occur and would have a reverse effect. The floods that took place in Thomas Valley and Somerset affected the agriculture of the UK and resulted in almost a billion pounds renovating costs, would not have been prevented by dredging.
Natural Methods
One of the alternative methods for dredging is Natural Methods: afforestation, storing water, infiltration zones, and reintroducing beavers. The main purpose of natural flood control methods is to reduce the w...
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...the weather and terrain. The two key functions of dams are the ability to control the water flow and the creation of a place to store water that can supply farmers with water. The construction of dams are much more sustainable than dredging and can generate massive amounts of electricity. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of building dams, operating it is a complex matter.
Conclusion
To conclude the purpose of this essay is to illustrate that while dredging has its benefits its drawbacks out way them. Thus, the need to look for alternative methods to find that soft engineering, hard engineering, and natural methods are more suitable to use this is because soft engineering, for example, is considerably less expensive than dredging. Natural methods benefit the environments, while dredging harms it. Hard engineering is a much more sustainable and effective method.
Hägglund, Å., & Sjöberg, G. (1999). Effedts of beaver dams on the fish fauna of the forest streams. Forestry Ecology and Management, 115, 259-266.
Furthermore, even though the Friend dam is the first primary purpose of it; it also follows a secondary purpose also. And that would be the Friend Power Authority which has 4 power plants. And within the plants it has turbines in it. What this turbine does it is that it generates water into the channel or tubes, and then it let it out into the four outlets which flows out into its benefits locations.
A major flood on any river is both a long-term and a short-term event, particularly any river basin where human influence has exerted "control" over the ri...
Investigating if Dawlish Warren is Under Threat of Human Impact My investigation aims to find out if Dawlish Warren is threaten by human impacts and marine processes and are these affecting the ecological and economical value of Dawlish Warren. I will put to test Butlers Model and see if it applies to Dawlish Warren. I will also look at the other side of the argument and see the effect of management in Dawlish Warren and look at the sea defences which have been put in place to prevent erosion and longshore drift from occurring and also protecting the Railway line.
As can be seen, there is a large fetch distance between Hastings and the French coastline much further south of this map. For over a hundred years, there have been rapid coastal problems at Hastings. However within the last 30 years, there have been drastic measures taken at Hastings to improve the coast and protect the town by implementing strategic coastal management plans where some have been successful and others not so successful. The main idea behind the coastal engineering was to protect the cliff face at certain areas along the coast, and the beach and pier at Hastings.
... consider some ideas of what can be done to further enhance the management of the coastal issue. Using the research action plan, I aim to acquire a sophisticated understanding of longshore drift, coastal management and implementations of coastal issues, through the research action plan. Most importantly, I will include various diagrams explaining how the process of longshore drift occurs and what implementations it has on coastal environments, accompanied by an explanation of how the issue is being managed, a detailed outline of the geographical processes involved and a discussion of the impacts of the issue and why it is important.
The use of turbines from dams to provide power was a brilliant idea until water levels started running lower than normal. The water waste from humanity is directly contributing to portions of it, aside from drought conditions affected by pollution, widespread fires battled, and more adds to the depletion thereof. When humanity is relying on power provided from dams to handle the demand, they are essentially relying on the assumption that water levels will always be there to provide it. The Hoover Dam provides power to the southwestern portion of the USA that has a large number of people.
affects the ecosystem. The land's incline prevents some areas to receive and maintain a water
Dams made from dirt are very weak and the South Fork dam was built entirely with dirt. From an engineering standpoint dams made with dirt needed to be built ...
Semaphore Beach is affected by many factors such as natural processes and human impacts including marine litter and the discharge of stormwater. Therefore, several plans have been employed to ensure that the coast is supported through the method of counteracting erosion. However in the future, many management strategies have been put into consideration as well as the environmental, economic and social impacts as well as the predicted consequences. These impacts include traffic related incidents, noises and air pollution and the disruption of wildlife and the erosion of dunes. A method that should be considered for future management of the beach is the use of a concave sea wall, although efficient, this structure would be quite costly. Without the use of coastal management, Semaphore Beach would be unsupported, therefore negatively being affected by a variety of
Surfers, swimmers and sunbathers use beaches for recreation. People fish off beaches for food. Since many people take their vacations at the beach, lots of beaches in tropical locations are important to their country’s economy. Entire cities, regions and countries depend on the money tourists spend while visiting the beach. Beaches are naturally very dynamic places, but people try to control them and build permanent structures, such as houses, restaurants, shops and hotels, on or near the shore. The natural erosion and deposition of beaches becomes a problem. Beaches con disappear over time, or even over night during severe storms. Beaches are areas of loose sediment (sand, gravel, cobbles) controlled by ocean processes. Most beaches have several characteristic features. First are offshore bars, which help protect beaches from erosion. Next is the foreshore, which rises from the water toward the crest of the next feature; a berm. On low-lying shores, dunes form behind beaches. Dunes look like rolling hills of sand and are blown into place by the wind. New, smaller dunes are often changing shape as the wind continues to affect them. Waves and currents move the accumulated sediment constantly creating, eroding and changing the coastlines.
Diversion dams are mainly built to lessen the effects of floods and to trap sediment.3 Overflow dams are designed to carry water which flow over thier crests, because of this they must be made of materials which do not erode. Non- overflow dams are built not to be overtopped, and they may include earth or rock in their body. Often, two types of these dams are combined to form a composite structure consisting of for example an overflow concrete gravity dam, the water that overflows into dikes of earthfill construction.4 A dam's primary function is to trap water for irrigation. Dams help to decrease the severity of droughts, increase agricultural production, and create new lands for agricultural use.
The most affected by sea level rise are the coastal areas, therefore, for the coastlines and river nearby the coast, Gaffin (Gaffin, N.D. cited in Braw, 2013) suggests building the grey and green infrastructures to protect the coast areas. The grey infrastructure is building walls and barriers (Gaffin, N.D. cited in Braw, 2013). Leonardsen’s team point out green infrastructure contains green roofs and green streets. Their team will plant more trees in the streets and lower the level of the lakes. Also, they will lay underground pipes to the harbor. When the flooding is coming, the trees can capture water and discharge to the lakes and the harbor.
Hydroelectric power seizes the buoyancy released from descending water. Two thousand years ago, Ancient Greeks utilized wooden water wheels to convert kinetic energy into mechanical energy because that’s all they had back then. However, in 1882, the first hydroelectric power plant was constructed in the United States using a fast flowing river. During that time, humans began to build dams to reserve water at the most suitable places or areas in order to best apply the power capacity. Engineering and structural changes have been increased in designing a more efficient hydroelectric power plant, but in order for that to happen they had to go through a very difficult process which can cause much conflict. (http://www.ems.psu.edu/~elsworth/courses/cause2003/finalprojects/vikingpaper.pdf)
Marine litter is any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed oforabandoned in the marine and coastal environment. Marine litter consists of items that have been made or used by people and deliberately discarded into the sea or rivers or on beaches; brought indirectly to the sea with rivers, sewage, storm water or winds; accidentally lost, including material lost at sea in bad weather (fishing gear, cargo); or deliberately left by people on beaches and shores.