As summer comes to an end, and if you enjoyed Lake Michigan this summer, you might have noticed lower water levels. While you may wonder about lower water levels, the higher water levels in the past decade continue to have a major impact.

In response to higher water levels, many property owners resorted to protecting their properties against erosion and water damage. This process is known as shoreline armoring, which refers to the construction of synthetic structures to slow or stop erosion and wave damage along the coast. But how effective are these structures and do they pose threats to the environment?

New research from Michigan State University Assistant Professor Ethan Theuerkauf, a coastal geomorphologist with the Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences, decided to document the increase of shoreline armoring in response to rising lake levels and its associated effects on coastal erosion.

The study, published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, is the first to track the changes in the percentage of armoring, despite the prevalence of armoring throughout the Great Lakes region.