GANGNEUNG / SAMCHEOK, South Korea, Nov. 19 (Reuters) – For years, the crystal-clear blue water and soft sands of South Korea’s Sacheonjin Beach have been favored by surfers and vacationers looking to a quieter experience than the more crowded options on the east coast.

But Choi Jong-min, who runs a guesthouse in Sacheonjin, was shocked when high waves washed away much of the beach this year, including during a typhoon in August.

“The waters have never been closer and the waves have never been so high in the past 12 years,” Choi said at his guesthouse, looking out the window. “This place was famous for its calm waves, but look, they are breaking widely now.”

Rapid economic expansion is eating away at some of South Korea’s most popular beaches, officials and residents say – a trend exacerbated by climate change, which has resulted in rising water levels and unpredictable weather patterns.

Sacheonjin, in the eastern province of Gangwon, is one of 43 such beaches designated as having “severe” coastal erosion in 2020, up from 12 in 2018, according to a survey of 250 beaches by the Ministry of Oceans and the Peach.

The eastern coastal provinces are among the hardest hit by erosion, accounting for 25 of the 43 most affected beaches.

“Coastal erosion has accelerated due to the government’s unwillingness to step up beach maintenance,” said lawmaker Kim Tae-heum. “He should secure and channel more funds and take over municipal programs if necessary.”

BEACHES THAT DISAPPEAR

Until 2019, Sacheonjin Beach was up to 40 meters wide, Choi said.

But on a recent Reuters visit, the beach had narrowed to around 3 meters, battered by waves.

As the water engulfed the sand, some businesses were forced to relocate. In other places, steep dunes of up to 5 meters have formed, causing safety concerns and disrupting tourism.

Early development plans lacked environmental protections and the 1999 Coastal Management Act failed to protect shorelines, unlike tougher measures imposed in places like the United States and Japan, Kim said. In-ho, a professor who led the Gangwon Province investigation.

Kim mainly blamed a coastal road and sea wall built too close to the shore, as well as a nearby breakwater, for accelerating changes on the Sacheonjin coastline.

“These unscientific designed structures intensified the waves and carved out the sand dunes, which helps mitigate erosion and storm surges,” he said.

Chang Sung-yeol, a coastal engineer who works with Kim, said this year’s erosion was made worse by the August typhoon and unusually strong waves coming from the east and northeast.

The waters of South Korea’s East Sea increased by 3.83 millimeters per year between 1980 and 2020, according to the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency.

TOURISM AT ISSUE

Lim Won-ik, a local official responsible for Sacheonjin, said nearly 60% of the sand on the beach has been restored since August, when erosion peaked.

Authorities plan to provide more sand and flatten beaches in all affected areas while developing long-term recovery plans, he added.

The country’s busiest beach, Haeundae, in the southeastern city of Busan, has lost nearly a quarter of its white sand since 2016 due to rapid coastal erosion, according to the ministry’s investigation .

In Samcheok, just south of Sacheonjin, a 2020 study by the Ministry of the Environment concluded that the beach had shrunk to its smallest level since 2005, with piles of sandbags now and coastal forest. .

This erosion has been partly exacerbated by the construction of a floating dock designed to supply coal to a nearby power plant, and campaigners fear that a planned breakwater at the site could cause further damage.

“We depend heavily on tourism, as people come here to swim, fish and catch clams,” said Ha Tae-sung, a local resident who is leading the protests against the power plant. “But you can’t go anymore, the clams are dead en masse, and it’s noisy and it stinks from the construction and the garbage.”

Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Josh Smith and Gerry Doyle

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