Discussion

There was general acceptance of the merits of beach nourishment as a soft solution to coastal defence. The use of beach nourishment and the possibility of roll-back solutions were the subject of research, including the use of dredged seabed materials which did not compete with the offshore aggregates industry for reasons of location, grading or contamination.

Some doubt was expressed as to the use of inshore materials on the basis of the overall balance of benefit. Moving inshore might merely exchange new problems for old and introduce conservation issues. Finer materials stood at a flatter gradient and therefore required a greater volume. Dredging industry costs for such material would have to be very competitive to compete with more traditional gradings.