I.Do nothing, no protection, leading to eventual abandonment:
This option is very environmental friendly and the only pollution produced is from the resettlement process. However it does mean losing a lot of land to the sea and people will lose their houses and their homes.

II.Managed retreat or realignment: Managed retreat allows an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by the sea to become flooded. This process is usually in low lying estuarine or deltaic areas and almost always involves flooding of land that has at some point in the past been reclaimed from the sea. The technique is used when the land adjacent to the sea is low in value. A decision is made to allow the land to erode and flood, creating new sea, inter-tidal and salt-marsh habitats. This process may continue over many years and natural stabilization will occur.

III.Hold the line, shoreline protection, whereby seawalls are constructed around the coastlines

IV.Move seawards, by constructing new defenses seaward the original ones

V.Limited intervention, accommodation, by which adjustments are made to be able to cope with inundation, raising coastal land and buildings vertically

The decision to choose a strategy is site-specific, depending on pattern of relative sea-level change, geomorphologic setting, sediment availability and erosion, as well a series of social, economic and political factors.

Hard stabilization commonly involves the construction of structures like seawalls, breakwaters, revetments, and gabions. Generally these structures are designed to absorb some or all of the impact of waves crashing along the shoreline. This is done either at the edge of the actual beach or further out in the water to break up the incoming waves before they reach the shore. Hard stabilization methods have been moderately successful, but often come with a considerable downside including their large financial expense, adverse effects on neighboring beaches, and degraded beach aesthetics.

Soft stabilization techniques generally consist of depositing sand from elsewhere to supplement an eroding beach. This process adds to the size of the physical beach and provides a greater buffer for shoreline structures. Usually the sand is gathered from other offshore deposits or inland sand source. This process does halt the erosion temporarily, and improves recreation without all of the obtrusive environmental effects of hard stabilization. However, it has proven to be quite inefficient and again causes adverse effects to adjacent beaches, such as increased wave potency. Over 100 beaches on the United States eastern coastline have employed this strategy, but the statistical success in unimpressive. On these beaches, 26% saw their imported sand disappear after just one year, and in only 12% of the cases did the replenished beaches last for more than five years. The average span of effectiveness for the soft stabilized, replenished beaches was only two to three years.

The other viable option is relocation of threatened structures. Obviously this is rarely popular with private homeowners and businesses because of the expense. However this option poses minimal environmental damage and is usually a one-time expense if the relocation is done properly. Abandonment of threatened coastline structures is another option that may be cheaper for the private landowner, but becomes a considerable public cost.

Hard stabilization, soft stabilization, and relocation are all methods that are currently being employed, but it remains unclear which of these methods, or which combination, is the best management practice for coastal erosion situations. Perhaps measures to preserve the natural remedies for beach erosion, such as the protective shoreline vegetation and coastal forests, should be factored more prominently into these methodologies.

These techniques are briefly discussed below:

(a) Hard Stabilization Techniques: Hard Stabilization techniques include the following:

Groynes	Sea walls	Revetments
Rock Armour	Gabions	Breakwaters

(i)Construction of groynes:  Groynes are wooden, concrete and/or rock barriers or walls perpendicular to the sea.

(ii) Construction of Seawalls: Construction of Seawalls (usually of masonry, concrete or rock, built at the base of a cliff or at the back of a beach, or used to protect a settlement against erosion or  
flooding. Seawall is a structure which is designed to protect a shoreline from flooding and erosion. Essentially, a seawall acts as a layer between the vulnerable coastline and the ocean. Wave action can beat at the seawall without eroding the coast, although the seawall itself will eventually break down and require repair or replacement. Seawalls also help to insulate communities from flooding, although high waves can still breach most seawalls. A seawall can also provide a space for recreation, since the top of a seawall is often flat, allowing people to walk on it or to fish from it.

In some cases, a seawall will be constructed on shore to break high waves which might otherwise damage structures and roads on the shore. In these instances, several lower barriers may precede the seawall, to help break up the wave energy before the waves hit the wall. Other sea walls are built in the water right next to a shoreline, as is the case on many islands. Some nations also build seawalls in the open water to act as flood barriers and to dissipate waves before they reach the shore, encouraging them to break more gently.

Many seawalls are curved, allowing waves to break against them while reducing their energy. Others are straight, and they are designed to bring waves to a standstill. It is not uncommon to bury low mounds of rubble in front of a seawall to assist with the goal of reducing the power of waves as they hit the shore. In the case of a seawall which is meant to resist flooding, the seawall may be quite high so that it can cope with storm surge.

Traditional seawalls are built from large rocks, pebbles, and other rubble; some remains of ancient seawalls built in this style can be seen in many communities. A modern seawall can be made from these materials, although it may also integrate concrete, metal bars, and other tools to make the seawall more sturdy. Cheaper seawalls may be made from wood and plastic, which provide some protection although they can potentially fail in heavy weather.

(iii) Construction of revetments: A revetment is a type of structure that is built along an embankment, shoreline or steep facing slope in order to protect it against erosion generated by wave or current action. A revetment is like a common sea wall in that it is designed to maintain the location and shape of a shoreline. Instead of standing vertically like a sea wall, however, a revetment "coats" the shoreline with protective material.

Starting from the shoreline and extending on to shore, a revetment will usually have a filter cloth. A filter cloth allows groundwater to drain through the structure without creating erosion channels that could weaken the revetment. On top of the filter cloth different grades of stone are layered. The base layer of stone, called "core stone", is smaller to allow for settling, while the outermost layer of stone, called "armor stone" is larger and heavier. The filter cloth and core stone provide a stable base to build upon, and the armor stone protects the revetment (and thus the shoreline) from wave and ice action.

The layers of stone extend above and below the shoreline surface, with the top extending above the "high water level", the highest anticipated water level based on historical data, preventing waves from going over the revetment. Likewise, the bottom of the revetment extends below water level. This "toe reinforcement" prevents waves from removing sand at the revetment base and thus undermining the structure.

(iv) Use of Rock Armour:  Large rocks are piled or placed at the foot of dunes or cliffs, which are placed with native stones of the beach: — also known as rip rap, rubble or shot rock. The rock used will typically be a very hard igneous rock that is exceedingly resistant to erosion. When rock is placed on the beach it is arranged so that large void spaces are left. When waves hit the rock they are only partially reflected, and can flow round the rocks, expending their energy less quickly which reduces scour. Another advantage of using rock is that if the rocks are moved during heavy storms it is a simple procedure to replace them in the correct position. (Figure on the right shows piling of rock armour, groynes can also be seen).  Rock armour is often used to protect the base of seawalls and prevents direct attack and damage of the wall. Additionally the rock provides support for the wall, improving its stability.

(v) Use of Gabions: Boulders and rocks are wired into mesh cages and usually placed in front of areas vulnerable to heavy to moderate erosion. Gabions are normally used on eroding cliff faces where their purpose is two fold. Firstly they provide stability to the cliff face, preventing failure, and secondly they permit water to drain away that might otherwise contribute to landsliding. Gabions are relatively cheap and easy to construct but they are not suitable for use in locations exposed to wave action because they are too flexible and are easily destroyed.

(vi) Construction of Offshore breakwater: Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift. Offshore breakwaters, also called bulkheads, reduce the intensity of wave action in inshore waters and thereby reduce coastal erosion. They are constructed some distance away from the coast or built with one end linked to the coast. The breakwaters may be small structures, placed one to three hundred feet offshore in relatively shallow water, designed to protect a gently sloping beach. Breakwaters may be either fixed or floating: the choice depends on normal water depth and tidal range. (figure on the right shows 3 out of 4 breakwaters Forming Portland Harbour, England)

When oncoming waves hit these breakwaters, their erosive power is concentrated on these structures some distance away from the coast. In this way, there is an area of slack water behind the breakwaters. Deposition occurring in these waters and beaches can be built up or extended in these waters. However, nearby unprotected sections of the beaches do not receive fresh supplies of eroded sediments and may gradually shrink due to erosion.

Enormous concrete blocks and natural boulders are sunk offshore to alter wave direction and to filter the energy of waves and tides. The waves break further offshore and therefore reduce their erosive power.

(b) Soft Stabilization Techniques: Soft Stabilization techniques include the following:

Beach nourishment

Sand dune stabilization

Beach face dewatering

(i) Beach nourishment: A beach is the perfect defence against wave action and, if a beach is poor, one option may be to undertake beach nourishment. This basically involves adding large quantities of material to a beach in order to build it up. The material added will need to be very similar to the material naturally found on the beach and will probably come from remote sources. Offshore dredging can provide a good source of suitable material for beach nourishment schemes or alternatively the sediment can be obtained from land based quarries. Beach management structures may also be necessary to ensure the extra material remains on the beach, and even so some will probably be lost through the natural movement of coastal sediments. This may mean further nourishment is required in the future to keep the beaches at the desired level. This involves importing alien sand off the beach and piling it on top of the existing sand. The imported sand must be of a similar quality to the existing beach material so it can integrate with the natural processes occurring there, without causing any adverse effects. Beach nourishment can be used alongside the groyne schemes. The scheme requires constant maintenance: 1 to 10 year life before first major recharge. It is a better way of managing the coast rather than using the Hard Construction Techniques. However, the procedure is costly and only temporary.

(ii) Sand dune stabilization: Sand dune stabilization is a coastal management technique for preventing erosion. Sand dunes trap sand and beach material washed and blown up, the rate of erosion is slowed and an effective flood barrier is created. Footpaths will also have to be introduced to stop trampling. Sand dunes stabilisation is economical, environmentally friendly, does not disrupt the coastline further on, creates natural habitats for animals and plants and is not regarded as unattractive. However, for successful dunes to be placed it must be thoroughly researched beforehand and will take a long time to establish. Sand dunes may be stabilized through the planting of vegetation. Vegetation encourages dune growth by trapping and stabilising blown sand.

(iii) Beach face dewatering: Beach drainage or beach face dewatering lowers the water table locally beneath the beach face. This causes accretion of sand above the drainage system.
Basically consists of continuously pumping water away from the beach face.  The system is based on the idea that, when the water table under the beach is lower than under the ocean, sand accretion is enhanced. As each wave rushes up the beach, water from the wave easily drains through the dry beach, leaving part of its suspended sand load on the beach. Less water drains back into the ocean taking less sand with it.

How beach face dewatering works: When the water table under the beach is lowered, water from the wave easily drains through the dry beach, leaving part of the suspended sand  load on the beach. Thus, the beach accretes

A specially designed drainage system is installed under the beach, with pumps removing groundwater from under the beach. When considering such systems, operation and maintenance costs must be taken into account. The pumps should run continuously.