Coasts Case Study

Question 1

Opp - Job options

Answer 1

Tourist industry
employs est. 42,000 people.
est. 13 million tourists every year

Question 2

Opp - Weather

Answer 2

Weather is subtropical
Water temp - 22C
bc of the coast as sea maintains warmth in colder temps and stays cool in hotter temp –> less extreme temperature
Sea breeze

Question 3

Opp - Environment

Answer 3

Long stretches of coastline are very attractive to people, want to live there –> quality of life and lifestyle is attractive.

Question 4

Haz - Storm surge

Answer 4

Storm surges are domes of raised sea water that spill onto sea. Storm surge caused by cyclone Dinah 1967 spilled over in Gold coast too and caused damage.

Question 5

Haz- Floods

Answer 5

Can occur from storm surge, rain or tidal phenomena

Cyclone Wanda in 1974 was followed by heavy rain, 2500 residents were evacuated.

Question 6

Haz - Cyclones

Answer 6

Can cause storm surges and flooding. Very common along gold coast.. Only occur in places with warm water and moisture which gold coast has

Question 7

Haz - Coastal erosion

Answer 7

Always been there. Began more sever when training walls built at Tweed river mouth. Stopped northerly flow of sand from north nsw to southern queensland.

waves at coastline removes 400 m cube of sand every year

Question 8

Imp: S

Answer 8

• Residents threatened by erosion of land
• Lose money as they pay for land
• Some times have to protect it themselves
• Social inequality as some govt. don’t protect less valuable land

Eg: Mermaid beach

• Residents pay 15-40 thousand a year for property
• They have to line shore with sandbags and mats
• Govt. says it is their responsibility

Question 9

Imp: En

Answer 9

• Loss of habitat bc shores get thinner
• Habitat destruction bc of hard defences
• Longshore drift halted bc hard defences

Question 10

Im: Ec

Answer 10

• Tourism value goes down: beaches in 2011 worth $300 million
• Money spent on coastal defence: $32 million in 2016 budget
• loss of property and land
• Property value decrease
• Damage to public infrastructure

Question 11

Man: Seawalls

Answer 11

A large seawall covered by sand extending along entire coastline called A Line. Serves as backup defence line. Also rule for priv properties to build a boulder wall for their properties.

Lim: Ex, destroys natural habitat

Question 12

Man: Nourishment and Dredging

Answer 12

Multiple types:

1) Nourishment in front of seawall - 500,000 m cube of sand each year
2) Dredging from entrance of creeks to beaches - prevents floods and builds beach
3) Dredging from one side of the Tweed training walls to the other (Tweed bypass and gold coast seaway systems). Replaces nature.

Lim:

• Expensive (tweed bypass costs 2.5 m annually)
• Buries natural habitats

Question 13

Man: Groynes

Answer 13

• Groynes at Kirra point and miles streetto reduce southern beach erosion

Lim:
- Ex: cost 800,000 to alter groyne length

Impacts on other parts of shore:

• Groynes were successful but cause retreating of northern beaches
• Miles groynes shortened, causing shoal to form over the groyne head and Kirra, North Kirra beach retreat