Environmental Hazards are potential places on earth's surface that can have catastrophic events where the earth moves or shifts as a result impacting in the short term and long term the surface where the event occurs. Hazards are slow, or fast depending on what type of event it is. The types of events can be cataloged as Fast events such as Tornado's, Hurricanes, Earth Quakes and Volcano's. Slow hazards can be from the most benign quantitatively, creep, erosion or other types of hazards such as pollution. This site looks at one of the types of hazards effecting a specific region in this case Santa Cruz.
Erosion along the California coast is one of the most problematic issues facing coastal residents and the government of Santa Cruz. Some of the solutions that are used are problematic. Some of these consist of sea-walls and sand replenishment most of those structures are still in place because of grand-father clauses which make removal of these structures a land use problem for government and residents. Santa Cruz is a very old community starting in the late 18th century as a mission community it developed into a thriving community over time. As a community along the coastal zone of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is susceptible to hydrological and physical factors since the soil types in the region are of sand, gravel, limestone (with siliceous shale), and crushed rock (mainly granite flecks and mostly materials that are susceptible to erosion and more easily liquefied.
Healthy beaches consist of accumulation of sediment usually from a wave-cut platform or directional currents pushing into the coast allowing beaches to form usually in coves or bay's. Along the California coast especially in the north there are fewer beaches as there is more and more uplifting of the sediment zone since most of the region consists of alluvial fans, and depository accumulation. Parts of the processes involved in erosion are caused by accumulation and removal of the same material over time. These processes make coastal living a challenge and when human habitation meets coastal erosion land use needs to respond, however, legal controls limit governments interaction with the coasts in California limiting how effective coastal control can be. Parts of the problem involve land use, but also part of these processes involve the problem of climate change, which is causing the increasing erosion of the coast.
http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/bperry/socalweb/coastal_processes.htm
Sea Grant Study: Coastal Erosion Del Mar, 1984 - http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/STORIES/coastalerosion.html
