The beach degradation and sustainable management of the sandy coast: The yilan coast of northeastern Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to improve the knowledge of citizens towards the Yilan coastal area. The basic ideas behind this project are to reduce the degree of usage of limited natural resources and to preserve the coastal area. First, it is important to devise the evaluation of the degradation status for the region. The study area is Yilan's sandy coast. The beach is the frontline among all the physical features regarding its function to the inner land protection. Thus, this research is to establish the indicator system to evaluate beach degradation which includes beach erosion, deforestation, seawater intrusion, shoreline retreat and increase of artificial structures on the beaches with the application of digital elevation models to simulate the study areas and to calculate the volumetric change between seasons and years. Therefore, monthly documentation on the beach litter has discovered several interesting indicators to support the evaluation of beach degradation. The results of beach budget and littering records can be analyzed to figure and explain the phenomena and cause of beach degradation, thus to solve the issues. At the end, based on the evaluation results and degradation level, a preservation strategy to manage the sustainable coastal zone will be proposed. © 2012 WIT Press.