Shoreline Management Plan and Design for Emerging, Sustainable Tourism

As part of an Inter-American Development Bank program to encourage sustainable tourism, the Government of Belize hired Smith Warner to design a shoreline stabilization system including nature-based solutions, stormwater drainage, and recreational sites. Our contract was extensive and covered Caye Caulker, with its dense mangroves and access to the Belize Barrier Reef, as well as the Toledo District, and District capitol of Punta Gorda. We used satellite imagery to study the shoreline and designed vegetated sand dunes, breakwaters and groynes to stabilise newly-constructed beaches, a pedestrian walkway, and a novel hybrid rock revetment with a mangrove berm. Our work was part of a countrywide study mapping Belize’s coastal hazard vulnerability.