China has seen its coastline retreat at an alarming rate in
recent years, with some sections moving back dozens of meters,
according to the State Oceanic Administration.
Results from monitoring over the past three years showed that 15
kilometers of the sandy coast in northeast China's Liaoning
Province was seriously eroded and was retreating at an annual speed
of 0.7 meters.
The biggest retreat in this section was two meters, which had
destroyed off-shore highways and threatened nearby farmland, forest
belts and buildings, said the report.
Another 35.6 kilometers of coastline along east China's Shandong
Province retreated at an annual width of 4.4 meters from August
2003 to August of last year, with the eroded coast 6.8 kilometers
longer than the beginning of 2003 and speed of retreat three meters
faster.
Jiangsu Province also witnessed 19.75 kilometers of its shore
line move back 16.8 meters on average each year from April 2003 to
May 2006, with hundreds of hectares of salt pans and many fish and
shrimp ponds washed away.
The weak geological nature, rising sea levels and frequent storm
tides have all quickened the process of coastal erosion, the report
said.
But human activities, including sand mining along beaches and of
sea beds, construction projects on the coast and upstream
interception of mud and sand, were all major causes, it
concluded.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)
