Coastal Problems and Taiwan's Solution

Coastal problems can affect every country in many different ways, whether it be through beaches or cliffs or any other area, many places in the world usually experience some form of coastal issues. Taiwan is no exception from the long list of existing countries to have to deal with coastal issues. Taiwan itself has to deal with many coastal problems on their beaches, mainly because of production from different commercial and fishery harbors. A post by Ray-Yeng Yang, Ying-Chih Wu and Hwung-Hweng Hwung called Beach Erosion Management with the Application of Soft Countermeasure in Taiwan states, "Many industrial, commercial and fishery harbor construction projects were also observed to have disturbed the continuity of littoral sediment transport, and lead to the retreat of the shoreline in the downcoast area." This means that because of people the shoreline on the beaches has slightly reduced in certain areas ofTaiwan's beaches. While lots of coastal issues can be natural occurring, sadly the reduction of the shoreline is man made which obviously on the bright side makes Taiwan more inclined to try and fix such issues. 

    Taiwan has clearly noticed some damage that they have done overtime to their beaches and have taken precautions to try and save and preserve what is left. Ray-Yeng Yang, Ying-Chih Wu and Hwung-Hweng Hwung exclaim, "Therefore, in order to mitigate the erosion problems due to the current hard shore protection system around Taiwan coast, detailed evaluation of various feasible soft engineering structures should be conducted in advance. The evaluation of soft countermeasure includes beach nourishment, near shore disposal berms, geosystems, artificial oyster reef, fluid-elastic sheet and aquatic vegetation." While all of the steps Taiwan has taken are effective in helping their coastal problems, not all work 100% in certain areas. Each method they use is effective in certain areas which is why they have so many different methods. Some areas require more nourishment while others require geosystems, each area needs a specific focus which is exactly what Taiwan is doing. This just goes to show how much effort Taiwan actually is putting into trying to stop coastal issues they once caused and have realized how they affect their environment. While not always perfect, Taiwan shows that it is never too late to take necessary steps to fixing and correcting one's actions and trying to amend for the damage caused.