Figure 1.7. Photographs showing impact of engineering structures on South Carolina's beaches.  (A) Seawall at Garden City Beach in February 2007.  Seawalls are constructed to protect structures from being undermined as the shoreline migrates landward. This image highlights the dilemma between saving structures and maintaining a usable beach (published by permission of M. Scott Harris, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina). (B) Southern end of the seawall at the Debordieu community in June, 2005.  The adjacent unarmored section of coast is left free to migrate, leaving the seawall-protected property in a precarious position seaward of the natural shoreline.  Beach nourishment has been used at this site to prevent failure of the seawall and temporarily provide some beach function (published by permission of Paul Gayes, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina). [Click here for high-resolution image.]

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