Shoreline Changes Caused by the Construction of Coastal Erosion Control Structure at the Youngrang Coast in Sockcho, East Korea

The shoreline change caused by the construction of shore protection structures are discussed based on the example of Youngrang coast, Sokcho where the coastal erosion control system(CECS), three artificial headlands and two submerged breakwaters are being constructed. The study qualitatively analyzed the shoreline changes of Youngrang coast using available satellite/aerial photographs and camera photographs taken during the construction period of 6 years since 2002 for the artificial headlands construction. The main results from the study are as following. (1) Before the installation of the middle artificial headland, longshore drifts along Youngrang coast are transported in the NW-SE direction according to the seasonally different wave characteristics. (2) During the CECS construction the shoreline is continuously changed by altering the local longshore drift budget. Especially, the middle artificial headland induces considerable change of shoreline by blocking the sediment supply from the southern pocket beach to the northern pocket beach and by accelerating the sediment accretion at the wave shadow zone behind its head. It induces the asymmetry on the net longshore drift causing the significant erosion at the center of the southern pocket beach. (3) The study demonstrates that serious unintended erosion/accretion problem are possibly occurred due to local changes on the wave transformation and the sediment transport by the construction of coastal erosion control system.