Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea
ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:494020.
PMID: 24955408 DOI: 10.1155/2014/494020

Abstract

Threats to beaches have accelerated the coastal destruction. In recent decades, geotextile tubes were used around the world to prevent coastal erosion, to encourage beach nourishment, and to assist mangrove rehabilitation. However, the applications of geotextile tube in sandy and muddy coasts have different concerns as the geological settings are different. Applications of geotextile tubes in sandy beaches were mainly to prevent coastline from further erosion and to nourish the beach. However, for the muddy coasts, mangrove rehabilitation and conservation were additional concerns in coastal management schemes. The mangrove forests are natural barriers which can be found on the muddy coasts of many tropical countries. In this paper, the viability of geotextile tubes in sandy and muddy beaches was analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of geotextile tubes in coastal management were discussed based on the experiences from the tropical countries such as Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand. From the case studies, impressive improvements in coastal restoration after installation of geotextile tubes were shown. Based on the discussion, several recommendations to improve the application of geotextile tubes were suggested in this paper.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.