A drop in the ocean

For decades, residents along a section of suburban Australian coastline have witnessed their beach dissolve before their eyes, sometimes literally dropping into the sea. Flinders University's Graziela Miot da Silva says southern beaches in Adelaide wouldn't exist without human intervention. Amid a warming climate and rising sea levels, perpetual intervention will be needed to save beaches around Australia, says Flinders University's Graziela Miot da Silva. "I've seen the water getting into the sea wall here," Dr Miot da Silva says of the coast at Brighton, in Adelaide's south. "If you don't have that buffer, the waves and wave run-up will attack whatever is on the back of the beach," Dr Miot da Silva says.