Managing Coastlines Flashcards
What are the 2 core aims of coastal management?
Provide defence against and mitigate the impacts of coastal erosion.
Provide protection against, and mitigate the impacts of coastal erosion.
What are the three other aims of coastal management?
Stabilisé sand dune areas
Stabilise beaches by longshore drift
Protect fragile estuarine landscapes
What is hard engineering?
This is making a physical change to the coastal landscape using resistant materials like concrete, boulders and wood.
What is soft engineering?
Using natural systems for coastal defence such a as beaches, dunes and salt marshes which can absorb and adjust to wave and tide energy.
Hard or soft: Sea walls
Hard
Hard or soft: beach nourishment
Soft
Hard or soft: rip rap
Hard
Hard or soft: gabions
Hard
Hard or soft: dune regeneration
Soft
Hard or soft: revetments
Hard
Hard or soft: managed retreat
Soft
Hard or soft: groynes
Hard
Hard or soft: land-use management
Soft
Hard or soft: cliff fixing
Hard
Hard or soft: offshore reefs
Hard
Hard or soft: barrages
Hard
Hard or soft: do nothing
Soft
What do sea walls do?
They dissipate wave energy
What are sea walls?
These are recurred structures that will throw waves back onto other waves which reduces the following waves impact.
Give an advantage of sea walls.
They protect the coast
How much can a sea wall cost?
It can cost over £5,000/m
List 3 disadvantages of sea walls.
Expensive
Ugly
Must have continuous facing so the gaps can’t be exploited by hydraulic action.
What is rip rap?
These are large boulders.
Where is rip rap placed?
In front of a cliff or sea wall to dissipate wave energy.
Why are rip rap boulders angled?
This is to give a large surface area and to allow water to filter through.
Is rip rap secured in place?
No
What are two advantages of rip rap?
Protects the coast
Blend in to the environment.
What is a disadvantage of rip rap?
The boulders can be moved by the sea.
What are gabions?
These operate in a similar way to rip rap but are smaller rocks that are caged in mesh.
What is an advantage of gabions?
They are cheap.
What are two disadvantages of gabions?
They are not very effective
Ugly
What are revetments?
These are concrete or wooden structures that are placed across the beach or coastline to take the full force of the waves energy.
What are two advantages of revetments?
They prevent further erosion of the coast
Require less maintenance than a sea wall
What is a disadvantage of revetments?
They are expensive.
What are groynes?
These these are wooden/ stone/ steel breakwaters built nearly at eight angles to the waves. Thy control longshore drug by trapping sediment to create higher and wider beaches which will then also dissipate wave energy. Groynes also dissipate wave energy.
Why are groynes about 5-10 degrees to the perpendicular?
This is to prevent them being scoured by the waves.
What is an advantage of groynes?
They build the beach back up.
What are two disadvantages of groynes?
They can have serious effects down the coast.
Ugly
What is cliff fixing?
This is done by driving iron bars into the cliff which stabilises it and absorbs wave power.
Why are offshore reefs?
These force the waves to break offshore.
What had been used in the past as an offshore reef?
Redundant ships
What are two advantages of offshore reefs?
Reduces wave impact at the base of the cliff.
Reef material can colonise the areas.
What are barrages?
These are large structures that prevent the flooding of major estuaries and inlets.
They act as a dam across an estuary and prevents incursion of sea water.
Give an example of a barrage.
Cardiff Bay barrage in Wales was completed in 1999.
What is beach nourishment?
This is the attempt to replace beach material that has been lost through longshore drift.
What happens in d’une regeneration?
Plants like marram are replanted in vulnerable areas.
Surface of the dunes is stabilised by sacking or wire mesh.
Afforestation with quick-growing conifers
Selective grazing
Restricted access by fencing off areas
Boardwalks for tourists
Tourist information about potential damage.
What is managed retreat?
This is where current sea defences are abandoned. Instead exposed lands are developed into salt marshes.
How are the salt marshes developed in managed retreat?
Low-lying land becomes flooded which is then reclaimed naturally by marsh plants.
What will the new area of marsh act as?
It acts as a defence against rising sea levels.
What is land use management?
This is where the local authority mitigates the impact despite a flood or coastal erosion being inevitable.
Local authorities help people to plan for the future and encourage land owners to think about how they can best use the at risk land.
What is an example of a land use that can be used in land-use management?
Caravan parks- the caravans can be moved easily when the land is too at risk.
What is necessary in order for the land use management strategy to work?
The local population have to agree.
What is in debate?
Whether or not coasts should be protected.
What are SMPs?
These are Shoreline Management Plans.
When we’re SMPs introduced?
1995
How many SMPs are around the coast of England and Wales?
22
What do the sediment cells correspond to?
The sediment cells and sub-cells.
What are SMPs designed to do?
They are designed to identify the most sustainable approach to managing flood and coastal erosion risks on the coastline.
What do SMPs aim to plan for?
Short term
Medium term
Long term
How long is the short term?
0-20years
How long is the medium term?
20-50 years
How long is the long term?
50-100 years
What has happened as many of the short term plans have neared completion?
They have been reviewed to create a second generation of SMPs.
What are the key features of SMPs?
They provide an assessment of the risks associated with coastal evolution.
They provide a framework to address the risks to people and developed, historic and natural environment.
Address risks in a sustainable way.
Provide a policy agenda for coastal defence management planning.
Promote long-term management policies for the 22nd century.
Aim to be technically sustainable, environmentally acceptable and economically viable.
Ensure management plans comply with international and national nature conservation and biodiversity legislation.
Incorporate a “route map” to allow decision makers to make changes.
Provide an foundation for future research.
“Live” working documents being continually reviewed and updated.
What does each SMP describe?
It describes how each management unit or stretch of coastline covered by the plan is to be managed.
What does ICZM stand for?
International Coastal Zone Management.
Where did the ICZMs originate from?
The UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
What do ICZMs aim for?
Coordinated application of the different policies affecting the coastal zone and related activities like fishing. It will contribute to sustainable development of coastal zones by the application of an approach that respects the limits of natural resources and ecosystems “ecosystem-based approach”.
What type of zone is one of the most ecologically active in the world?
Coastal zones are some of the most ecologically productive areas in the world.
What four things are coastal zones popular for because of their natural assets?
Settlements
Tourist destinations
Business centres
Ports
How many people live near Europe’s coastline?
Around 200 million people
What does the Commission feel is putting great pressure on the coastal environment and creates excessive exploitation of natural resources?
The concentration of people and economic activity.
What is this increasing pressure and exploitation leading to?
Biodiversity lies Habitat destruction Pollution Conflicts between stakeholders Overcrowding in some locations
Why does the Commission suggest that the ICM initiative be revised?
They are some of the areas most vulnerable to climate change and natural hazards.
The lives of people living near coasts are already changing because of these impacts.
What are coasts especially at risk of?
Flooding
Erosion
Sea level rise
Extreme weather events
What do officials believe are vital to ensure sustainable development?
The long-term plans proposed by the ICZM.
Why is it important that ICZMs are designed to integrate the interests of all stakeholders?
To avoid conflicts of interest.
Give some examples of coastal activities.
Fishing Agriculture Industry Tourism Infrastructure development Nature conservation and protection
What type approach does the ICZM apply?
An ecosystem-based approach.
What does this ecosystem based approach operate within?
It operates within the limits of natural resources and ecosystems.
What is the cycle that the ICZM should follow?
Planning
Decision making
Managing and monitoring of implementation
Information collection
What does MSP stand for?
Maritime Spatial Planning
Who established MSP?
The European Commission
When was MSP established?
March 2013
What does MSP build on and work alongside with?
MSP builds on and works alongside the ICZM.
How does MSP work alongside ICZM?
It adopts some of the techniques that are already employed by land-use planners.
What does MSP often involve and why?
GOS and geo-spatial mapping are used to help agree on the most sustainable way forward.
What else does MSP map?
The activities of all stakeholders.
What can then inform future plans and why?
Mapping the activities of stakeholders can help plan for the future because it allows stakeholders to see the cumulative impacts of their atoms on a particular ecosystem.
What is MSP hoped to play an integral role in?
It is hoped to play an integral role in improving the interaction between sea- and land-based activities.
What sea- and land-based activities will MSP improve the interaction between?
Connecting offshore wind turbines to the electricity distribution network on land.
Assessing the impacts of strategies to protect coastlines against erosion and flooding on activities like aquaculture and fisheries, and there impacts on marine ecosystems.
