Abstract
Mangroves have been recognized as soft structures that provide coastline protection. The capability of dampening waves helps minimize destruction from catastrophic events including erosive wave attacks, torrential storms, and tsunamis. Mangroves act as the first line of coastal defense in natural tragedies such as during the Super Typhoon Haiyan 2013 and Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004, whereby the leeward mangrove area encountered less damage than the unprotected area. This has further brought the attention of researchers to study the attenuation performance of these coastal vegetations. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper discusses the attenuation mechanism of mangroves, the factors influencing the dissipation performance, studies on mangrove dissipation via different approaches, the dissipation efficiency, mangrove conservation and rehabilitation efforts in Malaysia and implementation of mangrove as coastal bio-shield in other countries. The study highlights that mangrove parameters (such as species, width, density etc.) and wave parameters (such as wave period and incident wave height) are among the contributing factors in mangroves-induced wave attenuation, with different efficiency rates performed by different mangroves and waves parameters. Towards that end, several improvements are proposed for future research such as to incorporate all influencing dissipation factors with specific analysis for each species of mangroves, to perform validation on the studied mangroves attenuation capacity in different settings and circumstances, as well as to address the extent of protection by the rehabilitated mangroves. A systematic and effective management strategy incorporating ecological, forestry, and coastal engineering knowledge should be considered to ensure a sustainable mangroves ecosystem and promising coastline protection by mangroves. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091772 Full Text: PDF
Highlights
Mangroves are distinctive ecological ecosystems among those situated between the land and sea along tropical and subtropical coasts
Several keywords were applied as search criteria, such as mangroves, mangroves ecosystem, coastal ecosystem, coastal protection, wave dissipation, wave attenuation, mangroves rehabilitation, mangroves conservation, mangroves degradation, Indian Ocean Tsunami, cyclone, typhoon, mangroves Malaysia, and coastal bio-shield to capture papers published before August 2021
They reported that the resistance due to the unvegetated sandy bed with increasing water depth resulted in a lower wave height reduction
Summary
Mangroves are distinctive ecological ecosystems among those situated between the land and sea along tropical and subtropical coasts. Mangroves provide coastal protection by attenuating wave height and energy, acting as a natural barrier to incoming waves and, reducing erosion [2]. Mangrove’s protection role is significant in coastal management whereby mangroves have been regarded as naturally form barrier in defensing the coastline from waves, storms, and winds. In Philippines, mangroves safeguarded from the great waves impact of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 [21] These events, apart from evident the buffering capacity of mangroves, have sent a vivid message that conservation and sustainable management of these coastal vegetations are important to guarantee secure barrier against the natural hazards. The complex root system, canopy, trunk, and few other geometries attributed by mangroves play vital role in reducing the severe effect of incoming waves, winds, and storms. Mangrove conservation and rehabilitation efforts in Malaysia and the mangroves bio-shield implementation in several countries are highlighted in this paper
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