CrowdScience
BBC World Service
Categories: Science & Medicine
Listen to the last episode:
Around the world, coastlines are constantly changing due to the power of waves, currents and tides. Coastal areas are also some of the most heavily populated and developed land areas in the world. So it’s not hard to see how the natural process of coastal erosion can cause serious problems for us.
It’s an issue that’s been bothering CrowdScience listener Anne in Miami Beach, Florida. She can see the beach from her window and wonders why after every storm, several trucks arrive to dump more sand on it.
In this first of two programmes, CrowdScience visits Anne’s home in south Florida and finds out how erosion threatens Florida’s famous beaches. Caroline Steel speaks to geoscientist Dr Tiffany Roberts Briggs and hears why it’s such a problem for this tourist-reliant state. Tiffany explains the delicate balance between natural processes and human infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico declared a state of emergency in April 2023 due to coastal erosion. Caroline witnesses the impacts of erosion first-hand, as Ruperto Chaparro shows her abandoned houses crumbling into the sea.
But how can we quantify the rate of erosion? Dr Kevian Perez in the Graduate School of Planning at University of Puerto Rico explains the methods they use to monitor Puerto Rico’s coastlines, and how they are evaluating the effectiveness of different mitigation methods.
However, some of the methods used to protect coastal communities from the encroaching sea have done more harm than good. So what are the best ways to tackle this problem? That’s what we’ll be exploring in next week’s programme.
Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Hannah Fisher Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Liz Tuohy Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood and Bob Nettles
Featuring: Dr Tiffany Roberts Briggs, Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University Ruperto Chaparro, Director of Sea Grant Programme, University of Puerto Rico Anabela Fuentes Garcia, Villa Cristiana community leader Dr Kevian Perez, researcher at the Coastal Research and Planning Institute of Puerto Rico at the Graduate School of Planning
(Photo: Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Credit: Orlando Sentinel/Getty Images)
Previous episodes
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511 - Are our coastlines being washed away? Fri, 19 Apr 2024
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510 - How do my ears sense direction? Fri, 12 Apr 2024
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509 - Is Fasting Healthy? Fri, 25 May 2018
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508 - How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer? Fri, 18 May 2018
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507 - Why Do Humans Dance? Fri, 11 May 2018
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506 - Why Don’t We All Like The Same Food? Fri, 04 May 2018
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505 - Can Sucking CO2 Out of the Air Solve Climate Change? Fri, 27 Apr 2018
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504 - Are Screens Bad For My Child’s Eyes? Fri, 20 Apr 2018
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503 - Why Do Insects Fly Towards Lights? Fri, 13 Apr 2018
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502 - Can We Find a Cure for Dementia? Fri, 06 Apr 2018
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501 - Is The Future of Food a Pill? Fri, 30 Mar 2018
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500 - Does Anything Stand Still? Sat, 24 Mar 2018
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499 - Why Do We Follow the Crowd? Fri, 16 Mar 2018
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498 - Is Nuclear Fusion Coming Anytime Soon? Fri, 09 Mar 2018
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497 - Could Bees Take Over From Sniffer Dogs? Fri, 02 Mar 2018
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496 - Do Animals Have Accents? Fri, 23 Feb 2018
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495 - How does the Moon affect life on Earth? Fri, 16 Feb 2018
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494 - Why Does Dark Matter, Matter? Fri, 09 Feb 2018
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493 - Must Life be Carbon-Based? Fri, 02 Feb 2018
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492 - How Far Can I See? Fri, 26 Jan 2018
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491 - Are Crunchy Caterpillars the Food of the Future? Fri, 19 Jan 2018
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490 - When Does Speech Become Music? Fri, 12 Jan 2018
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489 - Why Does My Dog Love Me? Fri, 05 Jan 2018
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488 - Could our faces replace passports as ID? Fri, 29 Dec 2017
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487 - Rudolph castrated: what you didn’t hear this year Fri, 22 Dec 2017
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486 - What is dust? Tue, 19 Dec 2017
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485 - From Oldest to Strongest Living Thing Fri, 08 Dec 2017
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484 - Can We Revive Extinct Species Like the Dodo? Fri, 01 Dec 2017
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483 - Does Technology Change How we Fall in Love? Mon, 27 Nov 2017
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482 - Why are There Morning People and Night People? Fri, 17 Nov 2017
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481 - How Can I Remember More? Fri, 10 Nov 2017
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480 - How Did Life Get onto Land? Fri, 03 Nov 2017
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479 - How Can We Fight Unwanted Noise? Tue, 31 Oct 2017
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478 - Is There Proof of Life After Death? Fri, 20 Oct 2017
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477 - Can We Worm Our Way Into Better Health? Fri, 13 Oct 2017
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476 - Is Carbon Dioxide Higher Than Ever? Fri, 06 Oct 2017
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475 - Can We Make Artificial Organs? Fri, 29 Sep 2017
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474 - Should We Kill One Species to Save Another? Fri, 22 Sep 2017
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473 - Could All Cars Be Electric? Fri, 15 Sep 2017
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472 - How Could Humanity Become Extinct? Fri, 08 Sep 2017
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471 - Spider Silk and Super Fly Senses Fri, 01 Sep 2017
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470 - Trees v Air Pollution - the Rematch Fri, 25 Aug 2017
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469 - Sydney Science Festival, Australia Fri, 18 Aug 2017
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468 - Lightning Strikes Again Fri, 11 Aug 2017
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467 - Can Animals Commit Murder? Fri, 04 Aug 2017
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466 - What Do Our Accents Say About Us? Fri, 28 Jul 2017
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465 - Could a Computer Judge My Crime? Fri, 21 Jul 2017
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464 - Why is it so Hard to Quit Smoking? Fri, 14 Jul 2017
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463 - Does Time really Exist? Fri, 07 Jul 2017
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462 - Do We Think in Words? Fri, 30 Jun 2017