Impact On Physical Characteristics

The Sand Motor is located at the Delfland coast between the entrances of Scheveningen and Rotterdam harbors. This southern part of the Dutch coast is subject to structural erosion; the coastline migrated landwards about 1 km between 1600 and 1990. After the coast retreated about 300 m in the 18th century, rubble mound groins were constructed. As the coastline continued to erode despite the groins, sand nourishments were introduced as a mitigation measure in the 1970s. Since then, nourishments have been implemented more frequently, especially after the Dynamic Preservation Act of 1990 dictated that the 1990 coastline position had to be maintained at all costs. The first nourishment at the site of the Sand Motor occurred in 1986. Since then, the coastline was re-nourished eight times prior to the construction of the Sand Motor. In total, approximately 55 million m 3 of sand was added to the Delfland coast up to 2011, to mitigate erosion and reclaim land, with a new nourishment on average every 3 – 5 years. In the last years, the nourishment volumes in this stretch of coastline reached ~1.7 million m 3 per year.