aminat houdar is someone who's lived here all her life and witnessed first—hand the effects erosion isnear the beach. but because of the erosion, it's now flooding. and in fact, last year, the water came right the way through to the other side and came up to about there. and apparently, every year, it's getting worse. so, is there a better way to create new islands and protect established ones? well, perhaps turning to nature will give us the answer. here in the maldives, sandbanks like this appear and disappear. they constantly change size and shape according to the seasons and the ocean's forces. and that really influences the way that the people live and adapt. in fact, you can see that the locals have really made the most of this particular idyllic paradise. so we have two seasons predominantly in the maldives. one is the southeast and the northwest monsoons. and, you know, literally, during these seasons, we say we see sand shifting and we see sand eroding from one end and then building up on another end. and as a physicist, i thought, you know, can we use this? sarah dole is sri