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Physical Geography 🌋 > Coastal Management 🪸 > Flashcards

Coastal Management 🪸 Flashcards

1
Q

Why are coasts managed?

A

To protect homes, businesses and environment from erosion and flooding
Reduces social, economic and environment impacts

Money limited so not all coastal areas can be protected
Cost-benefit analysis used to determine which places are protected
Eg ones that have large populations or important transport links

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2
Q

Traditional approaches to coastal management

A

Hard and soft engineering

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3
Q

Sustainable approaches to coastal management

A

Shoreline management
Integrated coastal zone management

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4
Q

Soft vs hard engineering

A

Soft - more sustainable, less environmental damage and economic cost
Hard - unnatural and can impact environment and more expensive

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5
Q

Hard engineering strategies

A

Sea wall
Revetments
Gabions
Rock armour
Groynes
Breakwaters

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6
Q

Sea walls

A

Reflects waves back out to sea
Acts as barrier to flooding

+ creates promenade, tourism benefit
- expensive to build and maintain
- intrusive/ unnatural

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7
Q

Revetments

A

Slanted structures at foot of cliffs
Absorb wave energy when they break on it
Prevents cliff erosion

+ effective
- intrusive
- need maintenance

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8
Q

Gabions

A

Rock filled cages at foot of cliff
Absorb wave energy so reduce erosion

+ cheap
- unnatural and ugly

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9
Q

Rock armour

A

Boulders along coast or foot of cliff
Absorb wave energy
Reduce erosion

+ cheap
+ easy to build and maintain
- can shift in storms
- intrusive and unnatural

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10
Q

Groynes

A

Fences built at right angles to coast
Trap materials transported by long shore drift
Creates wider beaches so slow waves
Reduces their energy so less erosion

+ cheap
- increases erosion down coast, starved of material

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11
Q

Breakwaters

A

Boulders or concrete off coast
Force waves to break offshore
Waves energy reduced before reaching shore

+ expensive
- damaged by storms
- unnatural and intrusive to boats

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12
Q

Soft engineering strategies

A

Beach nourishment
Stabilisation
Dune regeneration
Land use management
Creating marshland
Managed retreat

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13
Q

Beach nourishment

A

Sand and shingle added from elsewhere (eg offshore)
Creates wide and high beaches
More wave energy absorbed
Reduced erosion

+ natural
+ tourism benefits
- need maintenance
- involves dredging seabed, bad for ecosystem

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14
Q

Beach stabilisation

A

Stabilises sand on beach - reducing angle, vegetation etc
Allows more deposition so wider
Absorb more wave energy
Reduces erosion

+ cheap and sustainable
+ creates habitats
- people walk on dunes and damage them

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15
Q

Dune regeneration

A

Dunes created or restored
By nourishment or stabilisation of sand
Provide barrier between land and sea to reduce flooding
Absorb wave energy to prevent erosion

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16
Q

Land use management

A

low value land in at risk areas

allowed to flood

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17
Q

Creating marshland

A

allowing land to flood
Planted vegetation on mudflats to stabilise sediment
become sat marsh
Creates barrier to reduce flooding
Absorbs wave energy and slows waves to reduce erosion

+ protects higher value land behind
- loss of and, agriculture loss

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18
Q

Managed retreat

A

deliberate flooding of certain areas to control the retreat
Breaching any flood defences in place

19
Q

evaluation of traditional approach

A

+ many methods effective

  • hard is expensive
  • often have knock on impacts on other areas
    eg groynes in Happisburgh
  • effectiveness against climate change unknown
20
Q

Aims of a sustainable approach to coastal management

A

New approaches since 1990s
- more holistic, consider entire zone, seperate managment in each cell
- more sustainable - less damage to environment

involve:
- protect people
- maintain physical environment
- sustainable in long and short term
- monitor changes to update strategy

21
Q

What are shoreline management plans?

A

Coastline split into zones by sediment cells
Different plans made for each cell, overall plan = SMP

treated as a closed system - managment largely contained within cells, have little knock on effects of other cells
- short term (up to 20yrs), medium (20-50yrs) and long (50-100yrs)

DEFRA advise whether to:
hold, advance or retreat line or do nothing

22
Q

4 SMP management options

A

Hold the line
Advance the line
Do nothing
Managed realignment

23
Q

hold the line

A

maintain current position of coastline
often uses hard engineering
when coasts are high value

rising sea levels make coastlines harder to maintain

24
Q

advance the line

A

extend coastline out to sea
build defences out to sea - eg nourishment or groynes
very expensive

effected by rising sea levels - would need to be raised later

25
managed retreat
allowing coastline to erode and flood in managed way eg creating salt marshes
26
do nothing
letting nature take its course erosion and flooding occur, cliffs retreat often used when costal land of low value, eg fields or few houses when cost and speed of erosion to large to manage
27
how are the recommendations decided?
cost-benefit analysis costs - money and physical impacts vs benefit to population and environment benefits must outweigh the costs
28
factors considered in a CBA
social - how it will affect the people, safety economic - impact of tourism, cost of defences, value of land protected environmental - impact on ecosystems
29
What is integrated costal zone management?
whole sections of the coast managed together manages wider coastal zone (eg land, water, people and economy) - recognise cells interact, reduced impacts on next cell - aims to be sustainable in long and short term Aims: - manage flood and erosion risk - coordinate activities to be more sustainable - manages natural resources It is integrated - brings together all involved in development and use of coast, many stakeholders involved
30
evaluation of ICZMs
+ more sustainable in protecting coast + have less impact of other parts relocation may be need where defences too expensive or ineffective - can't protect all create conflicts - people disagree about choices eg farm owners attached to land left to erode future sea level rise creates uncertainty on effectiveness of plan
31
location of Norfolk Coast
east Norfolk includes - Bacton (+ gas terminal) - Happisburgh - 1400 people - Sea Palling - 650 people - Winterton
32
geology of Norfolk coast
glacial till and layers of silt, clay and sands deposited by advancing ice in glacial period unconsolidated and soft rock = low, unstable and vulnerable cliffs Happisburgh cliffs - 6-10m
33
coastal process in east Norfolk
high rates of erosion - 2m per year - high energy waves (due to fetch) frequent mass movement - landslides and slumping - especially in winter when runoff makes cliff less stable drift aligned = longshore drift - sediment moves south - creates narrow beaches, vulnerable history of flooding in Happisburgh - due to low pressure storms over North Sea = high waves and storms - worsened by rising sea levels
34
why is Norfolk vulnerable to erosion? + in future
geology - soft, unconsolidated rock cliffs - glacial till = erosion vulnerable slumping after heavy rain long fetch from north sea - destructive waves drift aligned = longshore drift - creates narrow beaches, less protected erosion and flooding increased by climate change - rising sea levels - increased storm events - heavier rainfall = more slumping
35
traditional approach in Norfolk
developed 1950s after floods groynes - trap LSD sediment to widen beach, protect - moved issue to Sea Palling, south of Happisburgh, starved of sediment wooden revetments and rock armour - absorb wave energy to protect from erosion change in government policy stopped funding - road to sea eroded - storm destroyed 300m revetments
36
why was the traditional approach unsustainable?
cost of maintaining defence to high due to: - geology - storms and fetch of North Sea - frequent surges - rising sea levels
37
sustainable approach in Norfolk
1996 SMP6 to manage coast as a unit stakeholders - environmental agency and north Norfolk district council, local residents
38
why was SMP6 more sustainable?
environmentally sustainable economically justifiable holistic and integrated - not piecemeal long term - next 100 years
39
approach in Bacton
hold the line using hard engineering strategies - maintain sea walls - new rock armour - gryones to maintain beach and absorb wave energy reason: protect gas terminal - national importance and creates jobs but expensive trapping sediment starves coast to the south
40
approach in Happisburgh
managed retreat reason: higher relief then Bacton, less flood risk small population - 1400 surrounded by low value agricultural land - cost benefit analysis, new defences not justifiable unpopular with locals - financial losses as house prices fallen - land and agriculture lost
41
approach in Sea Palling
hold the line reason: protect low lying Norfolk Broads behind - environmental benefits and economic benefits - 7 million visitors a year making £400 million for local economy orignal plan - advance the line offshore reefs made to break waves before coast - reduced energy - starved areas south - Winterton
42
approach in Winterton
do nothing despite: Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty snd nature reserve - environmental impacts reefs at Sea Palling reduced sediment supply to area reason: village 1km from sea no direct threat
43
evaluation of SMP6
+ more sustainable management + involves local people and groups more + more holistic and long term - removal of old defences to allow coast to retreat people feel they are bing left to fend for themselves = conflicts - increasing costs due to climate change, increased erosion so more defences needed

Physical Geography 🌋 (21 decks)

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