Seawalls - Historical Examples

Historical Examples

Seawall construction has existed since ancient times. In the 1st century BCE, Romans built a seawall / breakwater at Caesarea Maritima creating an artificial harbor (Sebastos Harbor). The construction used Pozzolana concrete which hardens in contact with sea water. Barges were constructed and filled with the concrete. They were floated into position and sunk. The resulting harbor / breakwater / sea wall is still in existence today - more than 2000 years later.

More recently, sea walls were constructed in 1623 in Canvey Island, UK, when great floods of the Thames estuary occurred, prompting the construction of protection for further events in this flood prone area (Council of Europe, 1999). Since then, seawall design has become more complex and intricate in response to an improvement in materials, technology and an understanding of how coastal processes operate. This section will outline some key case studies of seawalls in chronological order and describe how they have performed in response to tsunami or ongoing natural processes and how effective they were in these situations. Analysing the successes and shortcomings of seawalls during severe natural events allows their weaknesses to be exposed, and areas become visible for future improvement.