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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Matthew Kelly

Hunter erosion crisis eases... for now

Reinforcements: A new line of sand bags outside Lexie's Cafe. The section of foreshore has lost more sand in recent days. Surf conditions are expected to ease in coming days. Picture: Simone De Peak

Wild weather that has battered the Hunter's coast is expected to ease in coming days.

Efforts to reinforce Stockton foreshore near Barrie Crescent paid off with the extra sandbagging withstanding two days of heavy swell.

But the area of foreshore between Lexie's cafe and the breakwall lost about two more metres of sand.

Renewed erosion also occurred at Jimmys Beach, however, less sand was lost than a fortnight ago.

While still standing, beachfront homes at Wamberal on the Central Coast suffered further damage.

Engineers inspected several of the buildings to determine their structural stability on Tuesday.

The recent severe erosion events at Hunter and Central Coast beaches could be a sign of things to come if research predicting 40 per cent of the country's sandy beaches could be lost over the next 80 years due to sea level rise are correct.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change in March was based on satellite images mapping shoreline change between 1984 and 2015, combined with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sea-level rise forecasts for the year 2100.

Most of the increase in sea level rise to date had come from the thermal expansion of warmer water but by mid-century melting ice sheets are likely to be the cause of sea level rise.

The researchers predicted that if carbon emissions peak in 2040 at least 12,324 kilometres of Australia's sandy coast will be threatened with erosion by 2100.

If emissions continue to rise, 15,439 kilometres of coastline will be under threat.

"Storm erosion is typically followed by beach recovery but some events may leave a footprint that takes decades to recover, if at all, while the additional shoreline retreat renders the backshore more vulnerable to episodic coastal flooding and its consequences," the paper said.

City of Newcastle has identified public assets at Nobbys, Newcastle, Bar Beach, Dixon Park and Merewether as being under increasing threat.

"Coastal erosion represents an immediate high risk for properties such as Barrie Crescent Reserve (Stockton) and the former Hunter Water sewage treatment plant," the council's Coastal Management Program scoping study says.

"Ongoing erosion will increase potential properties at risk into the future."

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