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Reprofiling shingle beaches
Shingle beaches which are depleted of material during storms and where the
crest is considered to be too narrow to resist further wave attack, is often
reprofiled. This work is designed to give short term stability to the ridge.
Usually the beach is bulldozed from the bottom up to increase the crest height.
The shingle ridge at Cley
in North Norfolk is an example.
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Guidance: Reprofiling does not overcome what is usually the more
fundamental problem in this situation, namely that the beach has an inadequate
volume of material to resist attack and cannot move landward to compensate
for this. At the same time reprofiling can cause environmental damage
as plant and animal communities on the ridge are destroyed. It would also
appear that the beach profile adopted can be too high and make the ridge
more not less susceptible to storm damage (as was the case at Porlock
where reprofiling may have added to the problems which led eventually
to the breakdown of the ridge).
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