Environmental Engineering: Gold Coast Seawall Reflective Journal

This reflective journal examines the Gold Coast Seawall, focusing on its construction, purpose, and environmental impact. The journal begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of the seawall in the context of climate change and sea-level rise, particularly in relation to the A-line datum. It discusses the seawall's design, intended function, and its role in protecting the Gold Coast shoreline from erosion, while also acknowledging the cyclical nature of beach erosion and accretion. The journal details the construction techniques employed, including the use of timber logs, gravel, and rock structures, and the evolution of these methods over time. It also provides a historical overview of storm events and their impact on the seawall and the surrounding environment, including descriptions of the damage caused by cyclones and the responses implemented by the government. The journal concludes by summarizing the design of the Gold Coast Seawall. The references cited provide a comprehensive list of sources used in the journal's creation.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Discussions..................................................................................................................................................3
Employed construction techniques.............................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Introduction

Any meaningfully article will not be complete on the discussion of the climate
change should it fail to mention something to do with the Gold Coast Wall. This will be an
implication that this special feature is at the frontline of the sea rise level. During my visit to the
area, several observations were made although I have just summarized some of the key points.
The geographical pictures have failed to indicate the A-lie that is used as the datum for
measurements (Kim, Gratchev and Balasubramaniam 2013). The erosion of the beach is
considered to be natural phenomenon on the part of the beach though it becomes the problem
that threatens the property in some aspect. This problem does not cause erosion of the beach but
develops within the natural beach movement. (Lawton and Weaver 2015).
Discussions
The seawalls are basically rock wall that follows the Gold Coast shoreline of the ocean
constructed along the A-line. A-line is the seawall line of the foreshore or a parallel line that run
to the beach in areas of the dune that delineates a defined erosion extent when the storm events
are extreme. The A-line type seawall is designed to get buried under the sand dunes so as to
make them invisible for the public and can only be seen during a storm when the seawalls have
been exposed. As in the case of the Gold Coast, the construction of the seawalls is not for
maintaining stability or for the beach protection. Though it is among the complex series attempts
to protect the beach by the State Government, the Gold Coast City Council has many measures
that were implemented to protect the beach such as nourishment of the beach and dune
revegetation(Hall et al.2015).
The Gold Coast is well documented during the storm which results into rampant
beaches erosion and accretion cycle. One of the extreme storm occurrence that is known as
cyclical happened in the period from 1860-1890s, the 1930s and 1950-1970s.This was

considered to be a particular storm of the periods marked.. Recently the worst storm was
recorded in 1967 but the problem of erosion was recorded in Gold Coast in the early twentieth
century at the Southport. Beachfront development was considered as a low key in the first half
of the century though increased from the 1950s but developed rapidly from 1970s onwards(Potts,
Dedekorkut and Bosman 2013).
Employed construction techniques
The report from the serious storm erosion which occurred in 1920 showed that the log of timber
was constructed to halt the effective erosion. The typical response of this was by the use of the
obtained timber logs which were transported and installed. Therefore, the walls were leaking
until the use of suitable gravel was considered to filter and retain sand by giving way for
elevated water to escape. These materials are very reflective if they are not driven deep enough
and may fail by toe scour.
The features were ineffectual and were coated with bitumen during the construction with rock
toe and gravel behind. This was built after a few years in the Pacific Highway to link Brisbane
and Sydney but was threatened at the Narrowneck near Surfers Paradise. The wall was
successful with a boulder structure of long reinforcement in the front section for many decades
though it was extended. There was cyclone occurrence in 1931 which caused extensive erosion
accompanied with rainfall. It altered the entrances to creek as in example of Currumbin Creek-
the island which was completely washed away near the entrance gate. In 1936, a severe cyclone
occurred again causing wide damage so more timber walls were constructed and this was noted
again in 1974. Cyclone occurred seven times in 1967 thus causing huge damage to all of the
southern Queensland beaches leading to erosion of well-vegetated dune but the dune collapses
during every high tide battering

This affected the private beach houses and the lifesaving club while expanded public
road that was well designed from the back .The beach which was built earlier by state
government planner were seriously damaged. Therefore, services such as fire and water could
not be accessed to the property(Coghlan et al.2013). As a tactic of responding to the earlier
storm, the seawall of both varying alignment and distance from the calm the position of the
weather shoreline were erected. The material used in the construction also varied and did not
have all property that the wall required therefore numerous gaps along the wall line. The
Queensland State Government through the consultation of the Auditor General Department
negotiated key parts concerning beach protection legislation and the designing of the seawall.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the design of the Gold coast Seas wall is ensure provision of the
overtopping that is responsible for the damage of the surface which is found behind the wall
during the organized events(Chang et al.2015). This is attributed to the fact that the property
owners are never happy with the property that comes up above the natural. This kind of the
restriction summaries the activates within this recreational structure.

References
Chang, A.B., Bell, S.C., Torzillo, P.J., King, P.T., Maguire, G.P., Byrnes, C.A., Holland, A.E.,
O'Mara, P. and Grimwood, K., 2015. Chronic suppurative lung disease and bronchiectasis in
children and adults in Australia and New Zealand Thoracic Society of Australia and New
Zealand guidelines. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(1), pp.21-23.
Coghlan, I., Carley, J., Cox, R., Davey, E., Blacka, M.J. and Lofthouse, J., 2013, November.
Concept designs for a groyne field on the far north nsw coast. In 22nd NSW Coastal
Conference (pp. 13-15).
Hall, C.M., Amelung, B., Cohen, S., Eijgelaar, E., Gössling, S., Higham, J., Leemans, R.,
Peeters, P., Ram, Y., Scott, D. and Aall, C., 2015. Denying bogus skepticism in climate change
and tourism research. Tourism Management, 47, pp.352-356.
Kim, D.H., Gratchev, I. and Balasubramaniam, A., 2013. Determination of joint roughness
coefficient (JRC) for slope stability analysis: a case study from the Gold Coast area,
Australia. Landslides, 10(5), pp.657-664.
Lawton, L.J. and Weaver, D.B., 2015. Using residents’ perceptions research to inform planning
and management for sustainable tourism: A study of the Gold Coast Schoolies Week, a
contentious tourism event. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(5), pp.660-682.
Potts, R., Dedekorkut-Howes, A. and Bosman, C., 2013. Gold Coast is not only all that glitters:
Understanding visitor and resident perceptions of the Gold Coast. Australian Planner, 50(4),
pp.316-327.
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