Abbreviation | ASBPA |
---|---|
Formation | 1926 |
President | Anthony P. Pratt |
Website | http://www.asbpa.org |
The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) is a private, nonprofit organization formed in 1926. It was founded to address coastal erosion and the loss of sand on America's beaches. [1] Today, ASBPA is an association of beach and coastal practitioners, including beach towns and managers, coastal engineers, coastal geologists, dredging and ecological restoration companies, coastal academics and students. ASBPA advances coastal science and coastal engineering through its peer-reviewed journal, Shore & Beach, and an annual technical conference. It also hosts an annual coastal summit in Washington, DC to advocate for coastal policies.
ASBPA was founded in 1926, and was initially instrumental in persuading the Congress to enact legislation authorizing federal funding of erosion studies and project works for shore protection. In 1930, ASBPA helped form the Beach Erosion Board. [2] [3] ASBPA was politically engaged on coastal erosion and beach nourishment for most of the 20th century [4] and has had number of prominent coastal advocates and members of the Army Corps of Engineers on its board, including Morrough Parker O'Brien, who served as President from 1972-1983. [5]
After a long partnership, ASBPA merged with the American Coastal Coalition (ACC) in 2003. [6] In 2015, ASBPA formed memorandum of understanding with the Coastal Zone Foundation (CZF) to collaborate on a certification program for coastal practitioners.
ASBPA (and the ACC, which it merged with in 2003) has been the leading advocate for the United States Army Corps of Engineers shore protection program [7] which builds and provides federal funding for beach and dunes systems as coastal flood protection for vulnerable communities. The focus on sand and sediment has led the organization to advocate for the beneficial use of dredged material [8] and natural coastal infrastructure. In February 2017, ASBPA President Anthony P. Pratt was invited to testify before United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on the value of beaches, dunes, wetlands and other natural coastal infrastructure to the nation. [9] In 2019, ASBPA Executive Director, Derek Brockbank, testified before the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure [10] and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, on issues related to beach and coastal restoration in the Water Resources Development Act [11]
Shore & Beach is a peer-reviewed journal, published by ASBPA four times per year. It includes scientific articles and general interest features. Typically, one issue per year is a special issue devoted to single subject. Shore & Beach has been published since 1933. [12]
"Coastal Voice" is a member newsletter distributed by ASBPA eleven times per year. It includes coastal policy updates, science and technology updates, information on conferences and workshops, and changes to the board and staff of ASBPA. [13]
ASBPA presents annual awards for Best Restored Beach to communities that have recently undergone nourishment or full restoration. And starting in 2019, ASBPA presents awards for Best Restored Shore to non-beach shorelines.
Inaugural 2019 Best Restored Shore winners were:
Recent Best Restored Beach winners have included:
2019 Winners
2018 Winners
2017 Winners
2016 winners:
2015 winners:
Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. It is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin metropolitan area.
Ocean Isle Beach is a small seaside town in Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. It was incorporated as a town in 1959 and is part of the Wilmington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 867 at the 2020 census. Located at the southern end of North Carolina's Atlantic coastline, along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Ocean Isle Beach has private homes, seasonal rentals, and tourist attractions.
Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward retreat of the shoreline can be measured and described over a temporal scale of tides, seasons, and other short-term cyclic processes. Coastal erosion may be caused by hydraulic action, abrasion, impact and corrosion by wind and water, and other forces, natural or unnatural.
Beach nourishment describes a process by which sediment, usually sand, lost through longshore drift or erosion is replaced from other sources. A wider beach can reduce storm damage to coastal structures by dissipating energy across the surf zone, protecting upland structures and infrastructure from storm surges, tsunamis and unusually high tides. Beach nourishment is typically part of a larger integrated coastal zone management aimed at coastal defense. Nourishment is typically a repetitive process since it does not remove the physical forces that cause erosion but simply mitigates their effects.
A breakwater is a permanent structure constructed at a coastal area to protect against tides, currents, waves, and storm surges. Breakwaters have been built since Antiquity to protect anchorages, helping isolate vessels from marine hazards such as wind-driven waves. A breakwater, also known in some contexts as a jetty or a Mole, may be connected to land or freestanding, and may contain a walkway or road for vehicle access.
San Pedro Bay is an inlet on the Pacific Ocean coast of southern California, United States. It is the site of the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together form the fifth-busiest port facility in the world and the busiest in the Americas. The Los Angeles community of San Pedro borders a small portion of the western side of the bay, and shares the name. The city of Long Beach borders the port on the eastern side of the bay. The northern part of the bay, which is the largest part of the port, is bordered by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington.
The California State Coastal Conservancy is a non-regulatory state agency in California established in 1976 to enhance coastal resources and public access to the coast. The CSCC is a department of the California Natural Resources Agency. The agency's work is conducted along the entirety of the California coast, including the interior San Francisco Bay and is responsible for the planning and coordination of federal land sales to acquire into state land as well as award grant funding for improvement projects. The Board of Directors for the agency is made up of seven members who are appointed by the Governor of California and approved by the California Legislature, members of the California State Assembly and California State Senate engage and provide oversight within their legislative capacity.
The St. Lucie Inlet, Florida is located between Hutchinson Island and Jupiter Island in Martin County, Florida, at coordinates 27°09′58″N80°09′24″W. The St. Lucie Inlet is one of six inlets into the Indian River Lagoon.
Davis Park is a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island separated from the southern side of Long Island by the Great South Bay off the South Shore village of Patchogue. It lies within the Fire Island National Seashore.
Pacifica State Beach is the southernmost of Pacifica, California's large beaches. It is a 0.75-mile-long (1.21 km) crescent-shaped beach located at the mouth of the San Pedro Valley in downtown Pacifica off State Route 1, in San Mateo County. Over one million people visit this beach annually.
Popponesset Spit is a spit between Popponesset Bay and Nantucket Sound. The barrier peninsula extends for about 1.0 mile (1.6 km) from the community of Popponesset in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and is part of the coastline known as Popponesset Beach. The tip of the peninsula is owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society while the landward end is owned by Save Popponesset Bay.
Coastal engineering is a branch of civil engineering concerned with the specific demands posed by constructing at or near the coast, as well as the development of the coast itself.
Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica.
The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) was passed by Congress in 1990 to fund wetland enhancement. In cooperation with multiple government agencies, CWPPRA is moving forward to restore the lost wetlands of the Gulf Coast, as well as protecting the wetlands from future deterioration. The scope of the mission is not simply for the restoration of Louisiana's Wetlands, but also the research and implementation of preventative measures for wetlands preservation.
Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 560 U.S. 702 (2010), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Florida Supreme Court did not effect an unconstitutional taking of littoral property owners' rights to future accretions and to contact the water by upholding Florida's beach renourishment program.
East Bay also known as East Galveston Bay, is the eastern extension of Galveston Bay found in Chambers County, Texas. The bay is oriented northeast to southwest, and is approximately five miles wide and twenty miles in length. It covers the area north of the entire Bolivar Peninsula, and south of mainland Texas, including the small community of Smith Point at the western extreme. The bay's one extension is Rollover Bay, which is found to the extreme east near the town of Gilchrist.
The North Carolina Coastal Federation is a nonprofit organization that works with coastal residents and visitors to protect and restore the beautiful and productive N.C. coast. The four main areas in which the federation operates include: coastal advocacy; environmental education; habitat and water quality restoration and preservation; and support in the improvement and enforcement of environmental laws. The federation headquarters are located in Newport (Ocean), North Carolina, with regional offices in Wanchese and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. The federation is currently a member of Restore America's Estuaries (RAE).
The Sea Bright–Monmouth Beach Seawall is a seawall located along the Jersey Shore in the Monmouth County, New Jersey towns of Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach. It roughly runs north-south direction along 4.7 miles (7.6 km) of the barrier spit of land along the lower Sandy Hook peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Shrewsbury River estuary. The use of seawalls, groins, jetties, bulkheads, revetment, and beach nourishment since the late 1800s has made the stretch of coast one of the most heavily engineered sections of ocean shorefront in the world.
Beaches in estuaries and bays (BEBs) refer to beaches that exist inside estuaries or bays and therefore are partially or fully sheltered from ocean wind waves, which are a typical source of energy to build beaches. Beaches located inside harbours and lagoons are also considered BEBs. BEBs can be unvegetated or partially unvegetated and can be made of sand, gravel or shells. As a consequence of the sheltering, the importance of other sources of wave energy, including locally generated wind waves and infragravity waves, may be more important for BEBs than for those beaches on the open coast. Boat wakes, currents driven by tides, and river inflow can also be important for BEBs. When BEBs receive insufficient wave energy, they can become inactive, and stabilised by vegetation; this may occur through both natural processes and human action. BEBs exist in all latitudes from beaches located in fjords and drowned river valleys (rias) in high latitudes to beaches located in the equatorial zone like, for example, the Amazon estuarine beaches.