Bull Eng Geol Environ

DOI 10.1007/s10064-017-1089-1

ORIGINAL PAPER

Impact of human interventions on coastal and marine

geological hazards: a review
Yu Huang 1,2 & Peng Jin 1

Received: 4 February 2017 / Accepted: 2 June 2017

# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Abstract Coastal and offshore regions, regarded as key zones Introduction

for earth science, are vulnerable to the effects of natural and
anthropogenic factors because of the complicated interactions Coastal and marine geological hazards refer to geological
between the land, ocean, and atmosphere. Rapid social- events that occur in shoreline and estuarine areas, as well as
economic growth has changed the geological environment of the continental shelf and deep sea, which cause serious dam-
the earth, and a series of geological hazards have been serious- age to property or casualties. Examples of such hazards
ly intensified, especially in coastal and offshore areas. Previous include offshore earthquakes, submarine landslides, and
researches have indicated that coastal and marine engineering consequent tsunamis, coastal erosion, port and channel sil-
construction or resource exploitation tends to exacerbate geo- tation, seawater intrusion, etc. According to Ye et al. (2012),
environmental hazards to varying degrees. These geo-hazards the causes of these geo-hazards can be divided into two
may include coastal erosion, coastal subsidence, seawater in- kinds: natural and anthropogenic factors. The natural causes
trusion, and seabed instability. In this paper, we review the include tectonic activities, gravitational processes, erosion–
characteristics of and advances in typical coastal and marine accumulation effects, and marine dynamic process, while
geo-environmental hazards that are intensified by human ac- the anthropogenic causes contain coastal and offshore hu-
tivities, as well as the associated impacts. The main anthropo- man activities.
genic factors that exacerbate coastal and marine geo-hazards Throughout history, coastal and offshore areas have played
are summarized, and the influencing mechanisms of those fac- a crucial role in the world demographically and economically
tors are analyzed and discussed in detail. In addition, to achieve because of the large amount of resources available in these
a sustainable development of the marine economy, prevention regions for human survival and development. In particular,
and control measures related to such geo-environmental haz- their social-economic significance is set to grow considerably
ards are briefly proposed and discussed. because of the higher rates of population growth and urbani-
zation. It has been estimated that more than 44% of the world’s
population lives within 150 km of a coastline (Syvitski et al.
Keywords Coastal and marine geo-environment . Human 2005). Furthermore, the ocean can provide a variety of eco-
intervention . Effect . Adaptative and control measures nomic resources, including minerals and energy, tourism and
recreation, living resources, and ship-building and transporta-
tion. A study revealed that, in 2010, over $258 billion, ac-
* Yu Huang counting for 1.8% of the gross domestic product of the
[email protected] United States, were contributed by the ocean economy, which
provided more than 2.7 million jobs (Kildow et al. 2014).
1
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil
With the rapid development of society and the economy, how-
Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China ever, coastal and marine geo-environments have been
2
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of
changed and become increasingly vulnerable to the effects
the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, of human activities, which, in turn, can restrict further societal
China and economic development.
 Y. Huang, P. Jin

Coasts are typical regions of land–ocean–atmosphere inter- survival and development. In the following sections, a system-
actions in the earth surface system, and are generally regarded atic summary and discussion is conducted in terms of the
as key zones for earth science. Because of the frequent and representative coastal and marine geo-environmental hazards,
intensive exchange of material and energy, the geological en- including coastal erosion, land subsidence, seawater intrusion,
vironment in these areas can be vulnerable to the effects of and seabed instability, that are intensified by human engineer-
natural and anthropogenic factors. From the viewpoint of ing activities.
earth system science, human activities have gradually become
the most active and dominant driving factors changing the
natural environment and, therefore, inducing further hazards. Coastal erosion
For example, the use of artificial protection structures such as
breakwaters, groins, and seawalls will affect shoreline alter- Coastal erosion and accretion is a natural physical process
ation, which had been thought to be caused only by natural caused by the dynamic interactions between sea and land in
processes (Selvan et al. 2016). Another example is that the coastal regions. This process depends on various oceano-
construction of offshore structures and subsea facilities (e.g., graphic factors, including waves, tides, currents, storm surges,
platforms with large bases, pipelines crossing slopes, and off- and sea-level changes, as well as human interferences (Albert
shore wind turbines on monopoles) cause the interactions be- and Jorge 1998). As different factors change, the dynamic
tween waves and the seabed to become considerably compli- balance of the shoreline is maintained. In general, there are
cated. This disturbance will lead to seabed instability, such as two necessary conditions on which the progression of coastal
soil liquefaction and submarine landslides. Hence, it is impor- erosion depends (Mazda et al. 2002). Firstly, the bottom sed-
tant to study the mechanism of human-induced coastal and iment can be moved by strong water flows; secondly, there is
marine geo-environmental hazards and the measures of geo- an imbalance between the supply and removal of bottom sed-
hazards reduction. iments. The former can be understood as hydrodynamic pro-
In recent years, many scholars have realized the crucial role cesses; the latter is an imbalance in the sediment budget.
of humans in the changing coastal and marine geo-environ- Despite the fact that coastal erosion is a natural phenom-
ment, and some related studies have been conducted. enon, the erosion and retreat trends of shorelines have now
However, most of these investigations are limited to a specific been largely aggravated in many areas, owing to human-
geographical environment in a certain area. And as we know, induced factors (Van Rijn 2011; Selvan et al. 2016). Jia
there are no comprehensive reviews of such hazards and re- et al. (2016) summarized and listed the causes of coastal
cent advances published until now. Meanwhile, few re- erosion and the corresponding time-scale. They concluded
searchers considered this issue from the perspective of engi- that anthropogenic interference can accelerate and exacer-
neering geology that focuses on the relations of interaction bate the erosion process over a range of time-scales (Jia et al.
between the engineering activities and the geo-environment. 2016). Analysis of the vast majority of coastal erosion cases
In this paper, we review the characteristics of and advances in from records has demonstrated that dams and reservoirs in
typical coastal and marine geo-environmental hazards that are upstream areas, artificial coastal structures, and mining
intensified by human activities from the perspective of engi- from riverbeds and beaches have had profound impacts on
neering geology. The main anthropogenic factors and associ- coastal retreat (Mikhailova 2003; Hsu et al. 2007; Aydın and
ated mechanisms that exacerbate coastal and marine geo- Uysal 2014).
hazards are summarized systematically. Additionally, preven- Erosion of coastal land, as a global issue, may result in not
tion and control measures against those geo-hazards are brief- only the loss of scarce land resources, but also damage of
ly proposed and discussed. This review will provide a better environmental and ecological qualities, therefore causing fur-
understanding of how human-induced changes have had pro- ther environmental problems. In China, coastal erosion is
found impacts on the coastal and marine geo-environment, regarded as one of the most serious geo-hazards causing land
contribute to a better response to reasonable development loss, coastal ecological changes, and consequent effects on the
and utilization of natural resources, and achieve harmony be- social and economic development of coastal areas. According
tween humans and nature. to the Bulletin of China Marine Disasters published by the
State Oceanic Administration of the People’s Republic of
China (SOA 2017), the erosion of sandy and silty mud coast
Typical coastal and marine geo-hazards exacerbated among the focal regions in China is still serious, and the av-
by human activities erage recession rate has an increasing trend in local regions. In
2016, the average recession rate was up to 6.1 m per year
As mentioned above, a series of geological hazards are seri- among the monitored sandy coasts and 13.7 m per year among
ously intensified by human activities, especially in coastal and the silty mud coasts. Figure 1 shows the situation of coastal
offshore areas, which will be a considerable threat to human erosion on the east and southeast coast of China.
Impact of human interventions on coastal and marine geo-hazards

Fig. 1 Coastal erosion on the east and southeast coast of China. a Dragon-Tiger Embayment, Shantou, Guangdong. b South of Dongtan, Chongming,
Shanghai (SOA 2016, 2017)

Coastal subsidence Seawater intrusion

Land subsidence is the geological phenomenon that results in Seawater intrusion is defined as the phenomenon of landward
gradual settling of the regional ground surface due to the com- movement of seawater into coastal freshwater aquifers, caus-
pression of ground soil, which is considered to be an irrevers- ing contamination and degradation of groundwater quality by
ible and progressive process (Galloway et al. 1999; Shi et al. raising the salinity. Seawater incursion into coastal aquifers is
2008). Land subsidence, especially inhomogeneous ground a common natural process that can be detected in all coastal
subsidence, can cause the bulk of environmental geological aquifers around the world. In China, almost all coastal cities,
issues, such as tilting and cracking of buildings and damage in particular those cities with a high population density (e.g.,
to infrastructure. In the context of global climate change, land Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Dalian), have experienced
subsidence in coastal zones, combined with sea-level rise and seawater intrusion caused by excessive exploitation of
extreme weather events such as heavy rain and storm surges, groundwater (Huang and Guo 2008). According to the State
may aggravate the risk of inundation and inland saltwater en- Oceanic Administration of the People’s Republic of China
croachment, posing a great threat to social and economic activ- (2012–2016), the most serious seawater intrusion happened
ities (Wang et al. 2012; Huang and Cheng 2013; Abidin et al. in the Bohai coastal plain area in 2016, where the intrusion
2013a). According to Xue et al. (2005), natural conditions and distance from the coastline is about 13–25 km.
human activities are probably the two main factors contributing Seawater intrusion is a hydrodynamic process between sea-
to land subsidence. Examples of the former are geotectonic water and freshwater. Under natural conditions, the freshwa-
movements and natural settlement of under-consolidated soils. ter–saltwater interface in the coastal aquifers maintains a rel-
The latter includes excessive extraction of groundwater or oil atively balanced status. Saltwater flows landward into aquifers
and gas, and urban engineering construction. In most coastal as a result of density variations between saltwater and fresh-
cities that have experienced serious land subsidence, excessive water, resulting in the intrusion of seawater (Johnson 2007).
groundwater withdrawal and engineering construction have Meanwhile, because the normal level of freshwater is much
been identified as the primary factors accelerating the process higher than that of seawater, the transfusion of freshwater
of land subsidence (Abidin et al. 2013b). from the land side toward the ocean side will restrict the pro-
Land subsidence is a widespread geological problem in the cess of seawater intrusion. Nevertheless, the natural equilibri-
urbanization process, and, so, has been a matter of interest for um between fresh- and saltwater is easily destroyed by in-
scholars and engineering circles globally. Abidin et al. (2011) creased pumping from a freshwater aquifer and other factors,
noted that land subsidence in Jakarta (Indonesia), which ex- such as climate change and sea-level fluctuations (Werner
hibits spatial and temporal variations, is strongly associated et al. 2013).
with urban development activities. Huang et al. (2015a) point- The intrusion of saltwater caused by excessive groundwa-
ed out that land subsidence is a major geo-environmental haz- ter withdrawal can aggravate the scarcity of freshwater in
ard during the development of urban underground space be- coastal areas, which will be a limiting factor for coastal eco-
cause of the construction processes involved in underground nomic and social sustainable development. According to
engineering, such as pit excavation, dewatering, and shield Custodio and Bruggeman (1987), 2% of seawater makes
tunnel excavation. On the basis of the hydro-inundation mod- freshwater non-potable and 5% of seawater renders it unfit
el, Yin et al. (2016) presented a numerical analysis approach to for irrigation. Additionally, seawater intrusion may cause soil
study the relationship between urban pluvial flooding and land salinization, leading to agricultural land damage. Hence, clear-
subsidence in downtown Shanghai. ly, seawater intrusion and the resulting disasters should
 Y. Huang, P. Jin

receive more widespread attention and immediate action of gas hydrate to pressure and temperature changes, as well as
needs to be implemented to protect underground freshwater the effect of gas-hydrate dissociation on the geotechnical
in coastal areas (Abarca et al. 2007; Abd-Elhamid and Javadi properties of hydrate-bearing sediments, should be studied
2011; Werner 2010). further both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Seabed evolution and sediment instability

Effects of human activities on the coastal and marine
The seabed is the direct support of offshore or subsea facili- geo-environment
ties, such as submarine platforms, pipelines, and oil tanks. It is
important to consider the seabed evolution process and the Human activities cause coastal and marine geo-environmental
stability of submarine sediment during the construction and hazards by modifying the geological environment and
operation of these seabed installations. In general, seabed evo- disturbing natural processes. The effects of typical human
lution is a natural morphodynamic process predominantly activities on the coastal and marine geo-environment, involv-
caused by tides, currents, waves (Huang et al. 2015b), and ing dam and reservoir construction, improper coastal engi-
even storm surges (Zhang et al. 2016). In addition to these neering structures, excessive exploitation of groundwater,
natural dynamic behaviors, human activities such as the con- and offshore structures and subsea facilities, are discussed in
struction and operation of offshore or subsea infrastructures detail in the following sections.
can cause significant changes to the ambient subsurface con-
ditions, which will, consequently, influence the evolutionary Dam and reservoir construction
process of the seabed, even decreasing sediment strength and
leading to submarine slides or long run-out movement of large The original intent of dam and reservoir construction was to
volumes of sediment (Cheng et al. 2014). Once these events play roles in flood prevention, irrigation, water supply, and
take place, foundations may fail, and offshore drilling plat- hydroelectricity generation. In spite of the numerous benefits
forms and submarine pipelines may be subject to varying de- that have been realized from dam and reservoir construction,
grees of damage, all of which represent threats to the safety of there are also many geo-environmental issues, as the construc-
the social economy and human life. tion disturbs the balance of natural processes. These geo-
Owing to the complicated coupled effects of natural dynam- environmental problems include reservoir-induced seismicity,
ics and human intervention on seabed evolution, a variety of reservoir sedimentation, and sediment reduction in down-
numerical models that can simulate large-scale sediment evo- stream areas. Note that these impacts are increasingly intensi-
lution have been proposed and used to assess the effect of fied and widespread with the expansion and acceleration of
different human activities on the evolutionary process. Roos dam construction on a worldwide scale. The main source of
and Hulscher (2003) modeled human intervention on seabed ocean sediment is derived from rivers into the sea. According
dynamics on a large scale in the offshore North Sea based on to Syvitski et al. (2005), approximately 12.6 billion tons of
extension of the classical offshore models that are used to sediment are delivered annually to estuaries and coastal areas
describe large-scale evolution of the shallow seabed. van der through rivers into the sea worldwide, which is comparable to
Veen and Hulscher (2008) used a geographic information sys- 90% of the pre-Anthropocene load. Over the past decades, the
tem (GIS) coupled with an idealized morphodynamic model to massive construction of large-scale water projects has led di-
investigate the effects of sand mining and offshore wind farms rectly to a sharp reduction of river-supplied sediment, thus
on the North Sea seabed, and concluded that both activities affecting the evolution of estuarine deltas and coastlines at a
exert a significant influence on the morphodynamics of the global scale. Fanos (1995) noted that 83% of the total Nile
seabed. sediment load was trapped in Lake Nasser, which resulted from
In addition to the large-scale seabed evolution, local stabil- the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1964, causing
ity of the sediment, especially sloping sediment, can be dis- dramatic erosion and retreat of the shoreline in the Nile delta.
turbed by human activities. In areas of sediment containing In the USA, the Colorado River Delta and adjacent shorelines
gas hydrates, fluctuations of pressure or temperature caused experienced serious erosion, primarily caused by river flow
by anthropogenic intervention may trigger dissociation of the modification and dam construction on the Colorado River,
gas hydrates, resulting in a reduction in sediment strength and, which reduced the great load of sediment supplied to the delta
consequently, large-scale submarine landslides or damage to (Carriquiry et al. 2001).
offshore structures (Hovland and Gudmestad 2001). The vast Considering the widespread phenomenon of coastal ero-
submarine landslides may pose a great threat to subsea equip- sion in coastal areas, particularly in the case of river deltas,
ment, and even to coastal infrastructure and communities increasing attention is now being paid to researching sediment
through the generation of tsunamis (Huang and Zhu 2014; storage in dam reservoirs and its effects on near-shore sedi-
Huang et al. 2014). Therefore, the physical-chemical response ment systems and coastal erosion. Based on estimates of
Impact of human interventions on coastal and marine geo-hazards

sediment accumulation in 50,000 reservoirs in the Yangtze evolution of shorelines using different research methods.
River catchment, Yang et al. (2005) studied the effects of dams These studies have mostly addressed particular coastal engi-
on riverine sediment supply to the sea and the evolution of the neering in a specific area. Miles et al. (2001) carried out a field
intertidal wetland. The results indicated that the total growth experiment to examine the effects of seawalls on nearshore
rate of intertidal wetlands at the delta front had decreased hydrodynamic and sedimentary processes on sandy beaches.
dramatically, probably because of dam-induced sediment stor- They simultaneously investigated a seawall at Teignmouth,
age in the reservoirs (Yang et al. 2005). A similar conclusion South Devon (UK), as well as the adjacent natural beach,
was drawn by Dai et al. (2008) from examining the sediment and drew the conclusion that both sediment suspension and
flux of the Pearl River since the mid-1980s. Andredaki et al. transport were altered significantly by the presence of the wall
(2014) used the method of numerical simulation combined (Miles et al. 2001). Kim et al. (2014) noticed that the expan-
with field investigation and remote sensing (RS) techniques sion and construction of Jukbyeon harbor was strongly re-
to assess the influence of sediment deposition in reservoirs on sponsible for coastal erosion at Bongpyeone beach in South
the erosion of the Nestos River Delta in Greece and adjacent Korea based on field observation and numerical analysis.
coastlines. They concluded that 83% of the sediments were Their results revealed that the headlands and submerged
trapped in the considered reservoirs, resulting in inversion of breakwaters installed to protect the beach from erosion instead
the erosion/accretion balance in the study region. Huang accelerated the process of beach erosion (Kim et al. 2014).
(2011) described the existence of a time lag between reduction Selvan et al. (2016) noted that the construction of breakwaters
of the sediment supply and coastal erosion based on analysis and groins on the southeastern coast of India intercepted
of the response of the coast to dam construction, which was longshore drift, causing continuous erosion in the northern
found to be related to downstream river bed erosion. Sediment part of Gopalpur port and accretion on the southern side.
storage in dam reservoirs should affect downstream coastal The studies mentioned above clearly show that coastal ar-
erosion; however, the extent to which upstream sediment tificial structures play a critical role in shoreline configuration.
storage in dam reservoirs actually contributes to downstream To take mitigation measures against regional coastal erosion,
coastal erosion is not very clear. Yokoo and Udo (2016) in- it is important to analyze and understand the effects of coastal
vestigated the quantitative relationship between sediment stor- protection engineering on sediment transformation and hydro-
age in dam reservoirs and coastal erosion, covering 71 coastal dynamic processes along coasts both qualitatively and quan-
zones in Japan based on zonal mapping, and found a weak but titatively. Furthermore, long-term continuous monitoring of
significant positive correlation between sediment storage in shoreline changes is indispensable to protect coasts.
dam reservoirs and coastal erosion.
From the studies mentioned above, dam and reservoir con- Excessive exploitation of groundwater
struction can definitely influence riverine sediment supply and
modify the littoral sedimentary budget, resulting in the exac- Coastal subsidence induced by vast amounts of groundwater
erbation of erosion and retreat of subaqueous delta and coastal withdrawal from aquifers has occurred in numerous countries
land. To assess the effect of sediment starvation induced by and regions all over the world. Such subsidence is ascribed to
dams on coastal erosion accurately, more quantitative studies the consolidation of sedimentary deposits with the increase of
of the affected areas and degree are required. effective stress (Bell et al. 1986). According to the principle of
effective stress, proposed by Terzaghi (1925), changes in the
Construction of improper coastal engineering structures effective stress are directly related to changes in the total stress
and pore pressure, which can be used to explain the relation-
Coastal protection structures (e.g., breakwaters, groins, and ship between groundwater withdrawal and land subsidence
seawalls) are constructed for the purpose of reducing the im- (Galloway et al. 1999). As the water resources in aquifers
pacts of wave attack and attempting to halt or slow coastal and aquitards are exploited excessively, the groundwater level
retreat. However, this may lead to severe hardening of coast- will draw down, causing the pore water pressure in soils to
lines and changes in sediment hydrodynamics, resulting in the decrease; thus, the effective stress in the aquifers and aquitards
erosion zones being shifted toward the adjacent coast (Selvan increases correspondingly. The soil skeleton compacts and
et al. 2016). A representative case was reported by Stanica land subsidence occurs, with increasing effective stress. In
et al. (2007): the Black Sea coast near the estuary of the addition to causing ground settlement, excessive exploitation
Danube River was divided into two sections after the con- of groundwater can also engender changes in the interface
struction of the Sulina jetties, which caused rapid sedimenta- between saltwater and freshwater, resulting in the intrusion
tion in the northern section but a greater erosion rate (more of seawater and destruction of coastal freshwater aquifers
than 20 m/year) in the other area (Stanica et al. 2007). (Barlow et al. 2010; Custodio 2010). Groundwater overex-
During recent decades, many scholars have attempted to ploitation decreases the pressure of freshwater, leading to
study the impact of coastal engineering structures on the landward shift of the freshwater–saltwater interface. In this
 Y. Huang, P. Jin

way, severe seawater intrusion occurs and freshwater re- be paid more attention to and further studies should be con-
sources in the coastal aquifers are contaminated by groundwa- ducted to achieve full understanding of the long-term interac-
ter salinization, causing a decline or even exhaustion of the tions between human activities and the marine geo-
available freshwater storage volume. environment.
Although the exploitation of groundwater could meet the
growing demands upon freshwater resources in the context of
expanding metropolitan and agricultural areas, it is not the Prevention and control measures
most optimal option for the sustainable development of hu-
man society. Accordingly, solving the problem of shortage of In the context of rapid population and economic growth in
freshwater resources is key to reducing the exploitation of coastal areas, human activities have influenced the balance
groundwater. of natural processes in many respects, including the material
and dynamic balances. From the perspective of the geological
Offshore structures and subsea facilities environment, the imbalance of natural process might lead to
the acceleration and exacerbation of coastal and marine geo-
With increasing demands on energy sources and the develop- logical hazards, which will restrict the development of human
ment of ocean engineering technology, many offshore struc- beings. Considering the catastrophic results of these geologi-
tures and subsea facilities have been constructed and put into cal hazards, a series of prevention and control measures have
operation, including offshore wind farms, gas or oil drilling been proposed and practiced into the mitigation and adaption
platforms, and submarine pipelines. At present, offshore re- of coastal and marine geo-hazards that intensified by human
source exploration and exploitation are moving from the shal- engineering activities (see Table 1). In addition to this, great
low continental shelf to the depths of the sea, which will pose efforts should be made to guarantee harmonious and sustain-
a series of marine geological hazards because of the compli- able development, including risk awareness and management,
cated geological conditions and disturbance from human data monitoring, and studying, as well as engineering and
activities. technological innovation.
As mentioned previously, in sediment areas containing gas
hydrates, human-induced changes of subsurface conditions in Risk awareness and management
terms of temperature and pressure may cause dissociation of
gas hydrates, which can lead to sediment deformation and In the 21st century, coastal and marine geological hazards
slope failure, posing a great threat to the safety of engineering have occurred frequently and led to serious damage and loss.
installations. Natural gas hydrate is an ice-like material com- The destruction of the geological environment induced by
posed of methane gas and water molecules. The estimated human activities in coastal and marine zones may harm the
potential reserves of worldwide gas hydrate are more than long-term social and economic development of a region.
1.5 × 1016 m3, 97% of which occurs in ocean sediments rang- Thus, governments at all levels should be aware of the seri-
ing from the continental slope to the continental rise ousness of the issue and make a reasonable and sustainable
(Makogon et al. 2007; Jia et al. 2016). Hovland and development plan. In addition, engineers and scientists (e.g.,
Gudmestad (2001) summarized the potential engineering con- oceanographers, geologists, and environmentalists) should
sequences of gas-hydrate-charged marine soil during the in- work together to strengthen research on the basic theory and
stallation and operation of marine structures. Disturbance key problems of interaction mechanisms between human en-
caused by drilling, pipelines carrying warm fluids, and addi- gineering activities and the geological environment, and, sub-
tional pressure exerted by heavy structures and anchors all sequently, promote disaster prevention and mitigation.
have significant influences on the stability of gas-hydrate-
bearing sediment (Borowski and Paul 1997; Kwon et al. Technology for monitoring and studying changes
2008). in the coastal and marine geo-environment
In addition, the presence of structures in a marine environ-
ment might significantly alter the flow pattern in the ambient With the continuous development of geographic information
neighborhood, causing huge changes in the local sediment technology, various techniques such as RS, global positioning
transport capacity and, therefore, leading to seabed scouring system (GPS), and GIS have been extensively applied in var-
and erosion (Sumer et al. 2001). With the occurrence and ious fields of earth sciences. RS imagery such as satellite
extension of local scouring, foundations may fail or collapse images and aerial photographs have been widely applied in
and structures may subside or become tilted, causing signifi- the assessment and prediction of shoreline changes because of
cant economic losses. their wide coverage, high spatial and temporal resolution, and
Though there are very rare reports on incidents of sediment cost-effectiveness (Goncalves et al. 2012; Ford 2013;
instability caused by human activities, the potential risks must Shtienberg et al. 2014; Nandi et al. 2016). In this way, a
Impact of human interventions on coastal and marine geo-hazards

Table 1 Mitigation of and

adaptation to coastal and marine Geological hazards Principle Mitigation and adaptation measures
geo-hazards intensified by human
activities Coastal erosion Sediment budget equilibrium Control the mining of river sediments
Sustainable sediment management in reservoirs
Reasonable sites selection of coastal engineering
Hydrodynamic equilibrium Conservation and replanting coastal vegetation
Implementation of ecosystem engineering species
Reasonable coastal protection engineering
Coastal subsidence Controlling or raising Impose limits on pumping aquifer water
groundwater level Water diversion project
Rainwater collection and recycling use
(the Sponge City)
Artificial recharge of groundwater
Minimizing disturbance Reasonable construction process
Seawater intrusion Controlling or raising Impose limits on pumping aquifer water
groundwater level Water diversion project
Rainwater collection and recycling use
(the Sponge City)
Artificial recharge of groundwater
Preventing exchange Barriers between freshwater and saltwater
Seabed instability Field selection Reasonable selection of offshore engineering field
Soil improvement Seabed soil improvement and reinforcement
Minimizing disturbance Optimizing construction process

reliable database of shoreline change rates can be maintained sharing platform between different countries and regions is
to provide valuable information for coastal zone management. crucially imperative to improve the monitoring and study of
Compared to conventional leveling surveys, GPS methods changes in the coastal and marine geo-environment.
and synthetic aperture radar interferometry measurements
play an increasingly important role in monitoring and map- Optimizing engineering design coupled with scientific
ping surface subsidence trends with high precision and accu- and technological innovation
racy (Abidin et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2014; Chaussard et al.
2014). All these techniques mentioned above possess unique History demonstrates that the development of human beings
advantages because of their real-time nature and visualization must be accompanied by changes in the natural environment.
characteristics when used in the field of geological environ- Certainly, the coastal and marine geological environment is no
mental research. In addition, a global data monitoring and exception; thus, achieving a good balance between human

Table 2 Sustainable reservoir

sediment management techniques Methods Descriptions
(based on Kondolf et al. 2014)
Sediment bypassing Diverting the high sediment-laden flows around the
reservoir through a diversion channel or tunnel
Sediment sluicing Discharging high flows through the dam and minimizing
sedimentation
Drawdown flushing Scouring and re-suspending deposited sediment and
transporting it downstream
Flushing sediment for dams in series Scouring and re-suspending deposited sediment and
transporting it downstream
Pressure flushing Removing sediment directly upstream of the outlet by
a cone-shaped area of scour
Turbidity current venting Allowing the dense and sediment-laden water to pass
through outlets in the dam
Dredging and mechanical removal Removing accumulated sediment by using hydraulic
pumps or heavy equipment
 Y. Huang, P. Jin

development and the coastal and marine geological and hydrodynamic processes, causing more serious ero-
environment has become an urgent problem to be solved. sion on adjacent coasts. Land subsidence and seawater
Optimizing engineering design and technological innovation intrusion in coastal cities caused by excessive exploitation
are thought to be effective measures to guarantee the of groundwater cannot be neglected. In addition, human
sustainable development of human beings. For instance, disturbance to seabed sediments, especially sediments
considering downstream sediment starvation caused by dam containing gas hydrate, may pose a threat to the safety
construction, Kondolf et al. (2014) summarized several prov- of ocean engineering by promoting sediment instability.
en techniques from five continents that have been successfully (3) Considering the aggravating tendency of geo-
implemented to manage reservoir sediments and mitigate environmental hazards caused by human activities, the
losses of downstream sediment loads (see Table 2). Despite following research directions of these geo-hazards need
these sediment management approaches having differences in to be taken seriously and conducted in the future: (i)
their applicable conditions and capital costs, there is no doubt Further analyzing and understanding the quantitative re-
of their effectiveness and long-term benefits in maintaining lationship between the mass and volume of trapping sed-
reservoir storage capacity and minimizing downstream im- iment and the coastal erosion; (ii) Exploring the influenc-
pacts. As a further example, the implementation of industrial- ing mechanism of coastal artificial structures on sediment
ization and low-cost seawater desalination technology can in- transformation and hydrodynamic processes along the
directly reduce groundwater exploitation by solving the prob- coast; (iii) Solving the problem of shortage of freshwater
lem of freshwater shortages for production and living in coast- resources in coastal regions; (iv) Paying more attention to
al areas. the potential risks of submarine sediment instability
caused by human activities, and achieving a more thor-
ough understanding of the long-term interactions between
Conclusions human activities and the marine geo-environment.
(4) Effective prevention and control measures against geo-
This paper reviews the impact of human interventions on coast- logical hazards that are induced by human activities
al and marine geo-environmental hazards. It is the first attempt should be proposed and put into practice imminently.
to preliminarily summarize the main anthropogenic factors and Examples that may mitigate the impacts of human activ-
the associated mechanisms that exacerbate coastal and marine ities on geo-environmental hazards in coastal and marine
geo-hazards, as well as prevention and control measures of such areas include risk awareness and management, geo-
hazards. Based on the systematic summary and subsequent environment monitoring and studying, and reasonable
discussion, the following conclusions can be drawn. and optimizing engineering design and construction. It
needs to be emphasized that various techniques such as
(1) Coastal and offshore regions, regarded as key zones for remote sensing (RS), global positioning system (GPS),
earth science, are vulnerable to the effects of natural and and geographic information system (GIS) should be used
anthropogenic factors because of the complicated interac- extensively by engineers and scientists to study the inter-
tions and frequent material and energy exchange between action mechanisms between human engineering activi-
the land, ocean, and atmosphere. From the viewpoint of ties and the geological environment, and then to promote
earth system science, human activities have gradually be- disaster prevention and mitigation. Beyond that, techno-
come the most active and dominant driving factors logical innovation is thought to be an effective way to
changing the coastal and marine geo-environment and, guarantee the sustainable development of human beings.
therefore, inducing further hazards. Major coastal and
marine geo-hazards that are intensified by human activi- Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Science
ties include coastal erosion, land subsidence, seawater Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (grant no. 41625011).
intrusion, and seabed instability, which will, in turn, seri-
ously affect long-term social and economic development.
(2) Human activities cause coastal and marine geo- References
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