Going to the beach in Chile can be a complex task. Especially if you consider the fact that the approximate 4,000-mile coastline offers about 900 beaches to choose from. That is quite an impressive amount! But this may not be the situation for much longer. Erosion is fast becoming a serious problem along coastlines across the world. Climate change seems to be a big culprit in this matter. The rate of erosion is variable per area, and also dependent on certain factors.
The coastline of Chile under the spotlight
Chile’s central and southern coastlines are facing erosion that could cause at least 10 beaches to disappear within a decade, according to a team of scientists in the South American country, which stretches for several thousand km (miles) along the Pacific Ocean. “It will be very difficult for these beaches to survive the next 10 years,” said Carolina Martinez, director of the Coastal Observatory at Universidad Catolica, in an interview this month on the Renaca beach near the popular coastal city of Vina del Mar.
Her team has tracked erosion on 67 beaches, finding that 86% are steadily shrinking — even during spring and summer, when they typically recover. Ten in particular, which already had high erosion in 2023, have continued to rapidly lose ground, with rates now about twice as high. The causes are both natural and human-made, Martinez said. Human factors that can lead to beach erosion can include things such as the development of artificial islands, the construction of coastal aquaculture as well as coastal engineering.
A beach with an ever-changing view
All of this can cause severe damage to the coastal environment. She pointed to intense and increasingly frequent swells driven by climate change, along with rising sea levels, sudden downpours, and heat waves, as key factors. Unchecked urbanization and the degradation of river basins that supply sand to the coast have also contributed. In Puerto Saavedra, in the southern region of Araucania, storm surges have carved sinkholes into roads and cliffs, cutting off access to some communities. The saltwater is damaging forests, too.
“We’re seeing cliffs and sandy shores retreating rapidly,”
Martínez said.
Some local businesses in popular tourist towns are already feeling the impact. “Last year was brutal … the beach disappeared,” said Maria Harris, who owns a beachfront restaurant in Valparaiso. “There was no space between us and the sea.” Coastal erosion does take away the “attractiveness” of a holiday destination. With the shrinking shoreline, both local businesses as well as nearby residential areas come at risk of the mercy of the ocean.
Eradicating the problem of erosion
Despite the risks, construction continues along the coastline, often near wetlands and dunes. Martinez warned that the impacts go beyond the environment. “We’re transferring the cost of these disasters to people —fishermen, coastal communities, and the tourism sector,” she said. Beach erosion is a very real concern, but there are a variety of things that can be done to try and combat the situation. Some of the basic things that come to mind are the construction of seawalls or the creation of coastal vegetation buffers.
Coastal vegetation buffers not only help to prevention beach erosion but also help to preserve the overall stability of the coastline. Other available options can include things such as the construction of seawalls. Built parallel to the shoreline, these help to reduce the impact of the wave and prevent them from eroding beaches. On a more elementary level, beach nourishment is also an option. This literally involves adding sand onto the eroded beaches to try and restore them. A long-term plan of action in this regard will aid in a better preservation of beaches not only in Chile itself, but across the globe.