The international conference "Construction and Use of Artificial Shore Areas" was held in August 2011 in Novosibirsk. It is not by chance that its venue was on the grounds of Akademgorodok (Academic Town) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Among other things, Akademgorodok is famous for the Ob Sea, one of the most interesting bodies of water in our country. New shore consolidation technologies have been tested there.

According to a Science in Siberia newspaper reporter who covered the proceedings at the conference, this problem was high on the agenda for people as early as the Middle Ages, especially in the 15th century. The Germans invented the best technologies of those times: mining amber deposits in the Baltic Sea, they found that artificial beaches were best for shore consolidation. The Americans also made progress in this field: a dune belt (where people are allowed to tread only special boardwalks) stretches along the entire Atlantic shoreline of that country. Russia has a similar shore consolidation belt in the Anapa region on the Black Sea Coast.

But back to the Akademgorodok conference. Even if a common beach is the best way out, this is not as simple, as it seems at first sight: just bringing the sand and making a beach, you will not get anywhere. More than that, this technique might speed up shore abrasion processes. You should carefully select the slopes and the size of sand particles, and be at home in the local geology and geomorphology.

Dunes.

This very approach was applied by Soviet specialists who in 1958 started building an artificial beach around the Ob Sea that performed well without reconstruction for as long as 25 years.

Finally, when discussing shore protection plans, Dr. Leonid Zhindarev, Chairman of the "Sea Shores" workgroup of the RAS Scientific Board for the Global Ocean, proposed the following approach. In the past, he said, we held apart processes taking place on the shores of artificial water reservoirs and natural land-locked seas. Now we have integrated these types of water objects since we are absolutely sure (and this is proved by actual evidence) there are no fundamental differences. The development and destruction factors are very similar: wind, waves, and their combined effect on the shores. Artificial water reservoirs should be treated as natural laboratories.

There are three types of water laboratories. The first one (the most primitive) is wave trays where relevant processes are simulated. The second one is represented by lakes. The largest one is the "restive" Caspian Sea. Nature is responsible there for water level fluctuations and internal changes. And finally, the third type--natural open seas with their flora and fauna.

Ye. Sadykova, Shores and Their Protectors, "Science in Siberia" newspaper, No. 34-35, 2011