The revetment crest was designed for secondary utilisation in activities such as walking and cycling. The overtopping discharge was 0.138 cu.m./s/m. The parapet elevation was +4.2 m from the mean sea level and designed to be a sitting place for tourists to watch sunset. As the result, the authors were able to study the design of every revetment component. The stepped concrete revetment was carefully designed to protect the coast while promoting the destination and revetment as a good getaway, and relaxation spot in a bid to enhance tourism. Existing environmental conditions covering various parameters were assessed. Public involvement and a surveys involving homes and homeowners of beachside properties were conducted and it provided indispensable recommendations from the revetment project’s stakeholders. This study presents how Thailand is undertaking a revetment project by using the Pra-Ae beach as an excellent example where the stepped concrete revetment was successfully implemented and fundamental coastal engineering data was gathered. Protecting an eroding coastline is necessary.

This paper could serve as a warning for countries currently entering the process of coastal development. Approximately 21 M m³ have been emplaced since then.Difficulties in finding quarried material due to restrictions in opening new quarries for environmental reasons, as well as finding suitable continental shelf sediments, together with the economic crisis, caused a reduction of beach nourishment schemes in recent years.Unsatisfactory results of some projects, where sand was quickly lost or the project did not have the stakeholders' acceptance, are additional reasons for the reduction in beach nourishment projects.Designers are now much more confident with hard defenses, possibly with submerged breakwaters or groins, although many projects retrace the path of the '60s, proving that not all has been learned from past mistakes. In the '90s marine aggregates commenced to be used in protected and in a few unprotected beach nourishment projects. Coastal resilience, previously reduced by longshore urbanization, was definitely zeroed.Beach nourishment started to be carried out consistently in the '70s with quarried materials or sediment dredged in harbors or river mouths (for a total of approximately 10 M m³). In some localities more than 200 groins or detached breakwaters (or both) are present in a few kilometers of coast. In this way many coastal towns lost their beaches, which today could have a tourist and social function.In the following years, when the beach became an economic resource, groins and detached breakwaters were implemented, frequently triggering down drift erosion, therefore justifying more coastal rock structures. When the problem reached developed areas a National law was enacted (1907) favoring defense of coastal settlements, which was mostly addressed through seawalls and revetments. Beach erosion started to severely affect the Italian coast in the mid XIX century, mostly at river mouths where settlements were almost absent.

Dune regeneration soft engineering