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Name: Coastal Systems (Paper 1 - Physical Systems)Revision 1
Revision 2
Revision 3
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How to use this checklist: When preparing for an exam it is important to revise each topic several
times with a gap of several days between each session to help develop your long term memory.
You can use the columns on the right to keep track of this.
Warning: This checklist is the minimum knowledge that is required to do well in this examination.
In addition, you must be able to demonstrate skills of observation, explanation and evaluation,
and in order to achieve the highest marks you will need to extend your understanding of each
aspect of the topic beyond what is stated here.
How can coastal landscapes be viewed as systems?
The inputs, outputs and processes of coastal systems.
The flows of energy and material through coastal systems, including sediment cells.
Understanding the physical factors of wind and waves.
Understanding the physical factors of tides, geology and ocean currents.
Sources of coastal sediment including terrestrial (fluvial, weathering, mass movement, marine
erosion, aeolian deposition, LSD), offshore (marine deposition) and human (beach nourishment).
How are coastal landforms developed?
Influence of flows of energy and materials on geomorphic processes including weathering, mass
movement, wave, fluvial and aeolian erosion, transportation and deposition.
The formation of erosional landforms: bays, headlands, cliffs, shore platforms, geos, blowholes,
caves, arches, stacks and stumps
The formation of depositional landforms: beaches, spits, onshore bars, tombolos and salt
marshes.
CASE STUDY—North Norfolk (UK)
The physical factors which influence the formation of landforms within the landscape.
The interrelationships between landforms within the landscape.
How and why the landscape system changes over time from millennia to seconds such as cliff
collapse, seasonal changes and spit growth.
CASE STUDY—Aran Islands (Republic of Ireland—Beyond the UK)
The physical factors which influence the formation of landforms within the landscape.
, How can coastal landscapes be viewed as systems? (1)
Coasts as a system Waves continued…
Coastal landscapes are considered open systems where energy and matter can be transferred into the system (inputs) After a wave has broken, it will move water up the
or out of it (outputs). coastline via backwash under the influence of gra
• Kinetic energy from the wind and waves Constructive Waves
Inputs • Thermal energy from the heat of the Sun
• Material from marine deposition, weathering and mass movement • Low in height, long wavelength, low frequen
• Usually break as spilling waves
• Marine and wind erosion from beaches and rock surfaces • Swash exceeds the backwash as the backwa
Outputs
• Evaporation returns to the ocean before the next wave
breaks due to the long wavelength
Stores & • Beach and nearshore sediment accumulations are stores
Flows • Flows (or transfers) include mass movement and longshore drift
Destructive Waves
When inputs are equal to outputs, the system is described as in a state of • Greater height, shorter wavelength, higher
equilibrium. frequency
• Tend to break as plunging waves and so the
When a system undergoes changes (i.e. it is disturbed), it aims to self- is little movement of water up the beach
regulate. This is called dynamic equilibrium. This attempt of the system trying (weak swash)
to correct itself is an example of a negative feedback. • Due to the nature of steep beaches, the
friction will slow the swash and the backwa
Sediment cells are an attempt to break down the UK’s vast coastal landscape will meet the next wave’s swash resulting in
into areas that are mostly self-contained, i.e. there is little to no sediment weak swash.
movement out of the area. It is therefore a generally closed system. The
boundaries tend to be defined by large physical barriers which act as High-energy waves tend to remove material from
obstacles to sediment transport. There are also smaller sub-cells. the top of a beach and transport it to the offshore
zone (see right), reducing beach gradient. Low-
Physical Factors energy waves tend to build up the beach,
steepening its gradient.
Physical factors affect the way in which the geomorphic processes operate. These factors include:
Tides
Winds
• Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the sea
• The source of energy for coastal erosion and sediment transport is wave action which is generated by winds. surface and are produced by the gravitation
Fetch is the distance over which the winds travel; the larger the fetch, the higher the wave energy. If winds blow pull of the Moon and Sun.
at an oblique angle, longshore drift is likely to • The Moon pulls the water towards it, creati
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