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Geography Unit 2 case studies: Coasts

Dibden Bay
1. Need for expansion to cargo port to maintain business and stay competitive with European cargo ports
  1. In 2004, CPRE Hampshire successfully campaigned to stop a container port from being built along nearly two kilometres of unspoilt coastline. Plans to build a new superport were rejected by the Government in April 2005.
  2. Economic Support
    1. National need for more container handling capacity
    2. Increase in jobs in the area
    3. Increases efficiency
    4. More money brought into the local area
    5. Players
      1. Associated British Ports
      2. Southampton City Council
      3. Confederation of British Industry
      4. Transport
      5. General Workers’ Union
  3. Environmental objections
    1. Threat to designated environmental areas
    2. Risk of oil spills
    3. Loss of habitat
    4. Visual impact on the landscape
    5. Players
      1. Council for National Parks
      2. English Nature
      3. RSPB
    6. Dredging would be necessary to accommodate the super-contained ships – more environmental damage
2. Local players
  1. Hampshire County Council
  2. Local Parish Councils
  3. Local residents
  4. New Forest District Council
Boscombe
1. The surf reef
  1. “The reef will give Boscombe beach its own identity, raise the profile of Boscombe and attract a large number of visitors on an annual basis.” Bournemouth Borough Council, July 2006
  2. Players
    1. Bournemouth Council
    2. ASR is a global coastal and marine consulting firm
    3. DEFRA - Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
    4. Locals
    5. Tourists
  3. Was it a success?
    1. Reef Declared Officially open, 19 November 2009
      1. On the 31 March 2011 the reef was closed due to safety reasons
        Reef re-branded as Coastal Activity Park concentrating on Diving, Snorkeling, Wind & Kite Surfing as well as on shore sports.
Holderness
1. Nearly 2m of coast lost per year
  1. During the winter of 2006, 5 meters lost in some areas
  2. Fastest eroding coast in Europe
2. Stretches between Flamborough head and Spurn head
3. Why is it eroding so quickly?
  1. Atlantic currents going into the North Sea add energy to the waves resulting in powerful destructive waves
  2. Low pressure weather systems often resulting in strong winds and storms, causes weathering on the cliffs
  3. Small enclosed seas like the North sea result in waves losing very little power during storms before they reach land, most powerful destructive waves
  4. The sea around Holderness is very deep meaning the waves dont lose very much energy on the seabed before hitting the cliffs like shallower cliffsides would.
4. Hard engineering
  1. Wood groynes at Hornsea
    1. Prevent loss of sediment by long shore drift,
    2. Maintains the beach
      1. Waves have to travel further before reaching the settlement
    3. However this is cutting off sediment flow to the village of Mappleton just south of Hornsea
      1. By the 1990s nearlly 4m of cliff lost per year
      2. "Terminal Groyne Syndrome"
  2. Rock groynes at Mappleton
    1. Built by Humberside council in 1991, costing £2 million
    2. Prevents long shore drift
    3. Is starving the village of Cowden
  3. Revetments at Easington
    1. Work by absorbing the wave energy
    2. Very expensive but also long lasting
    3. Unattractive
  4. Curved Sea wall at Withernsea
    1. Dissipate the wave energy resulting in less erosion to the sea wall itself extending its lifetime
    2. Extremely expensive due to its shape.
5. Soft engineering
  1. Beach Nourishment at Hornsea
    1. Pump sediment from offshore onto the beach
    2. Create a wider beach
      1. Protect the coast line
    3. Add sediment for the benefit for those down drift
    4. However a single storm can result in huge amounts of sediment loss thus the beach needs to be replenished every few years
  2. Coastal Zoning
    1. Some areas where the cost of protecting the coast outweighs the benefits are zoned off, all planning permission is denied and the area is left to erode
  3. Managed retreat
    1. This is where the coastline is gradually lost resulting in the settlements "rolling back". This is where residents closest tot he coast can apply for planning permission to move their house or caravan further inland where they are not at risk from erosion
      1. The East Yorkshire Council is encouraging people to move to bigger towns such as Hornsea and Easington where defences already exist
6. Integrated coastal management
  1. Sections of the coast are managed as a whole rather than by individual town or village
  2. This is done because only protecting one area of the coast will in turn have an affect on another area of the coast. However by considering a section of the coast as whole we can eliminate this. Sediment moves along the coast in sediment cells and each cell moves between physical barriers such as headlands or a river estuary. The Holderness coast is part of a cell which extends from Flamborough head to The Wash.
7. Players
  1. Local council
  2. Councils along the integrated coastline
  3. Local residents
Abbots Hall farm
1. On the Essex coast sea level is rising by around 6mm per year due to the combined effects of global warming and the settling of the land mass in the south-east.
2. The seawalls surrounding most of the Essex coast today were constructed more than 300 years ago to reclaim land from the sea.
3. The coastal realignment project at Abbotts Hall Farm was designed to recreate lost habitats by allowing salt water back on to the land reclaimed originally.
4. Two new counter walls were constructed at either end of the site to protect neighbouring land.
5. This has allowed the creation of 200 acres of mudflat, salt marsh and coastal grassland.
6. The seawall was breached in five places in October 2002 and very quickly salt marsh plants moved in.
7. Managed retreat is used to great effect, with certain areas left to nature in order to release pressure on sea walls further down coast which protect more valuable land.
  1. The main location of this is around 20 miles south of Colchester, an area of high social value due to the large population.
8. Site of special scientific interest
9. Players
  1. The WWF
  2. The Essex Wildlife Trust
  3. Essex county council
  4. Local residents
  5. Government agencies

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Geography Unit 2 case studies: Coasts

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	Created by Jason Edwards-Suarez about 9 years ago