Over the next three years, a group of structural engineers at UC San Diego, led by Scott Ashford, will digitize and then analyze old and recent aerial photos of the coast, building on some of the photo-imaging techniques developed by Griggs. The analysis will use the images to look at erosion rates where seawalls, riprap, and soil-cement buttresses have been built. In the second and third years of the study, the scientists will investigate why some structures are more effective at reducing erosion than others, and they will then assess costs and environmental consequences of armoring. Seawalls, for instance, may deplete beaches of sand. The group will ultimately publish a manual providing guidelines for bluff stabilization techniques for property owners, engineers, city planners and regulators.
Seawalls have the biggest impact on everyone else.