Study guide
A level Edexcel Geography - Coasts EQ4
- Module
- Unit 1 - Dynamic Landscapes
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Detailed EQ4 Coasts notes, including detailed theory notes and case studies that link to specification throughout.
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Geography Consolidation 2B.10INCREASING RISKS OF COASTAL RECESSION AND COASTAL FLOWODING HAVE SERIOUS
CONSEQUENCES FOR AFFECTED COMMUNITIES
a) Economic losses ( housing, businesses, agricultural land, infrastructure) and social
losses ( relocation, loss of livelihood, amenity value ) from coastal recession can be
significant, especially in areas of dense coastal developments
- The consequences of coastal erosion can be classified in 3 categories :
- Economic Costs -loss of property, businesses, farmland - is easy to quantify
- Social Costs - Impact on people eg relocation, loss of jobs, health - hard to quantify
- Environmental Costs - Impacts on ecosystems and habitats, almost impossible to quantify
- Usually economic cost is local and small because:
- Property looses value as risk is identified
- High density areas are protected by coastal defences
- High economical costs are associated with unpredicted events or undeveloped countries
- Impacts on individual residents with houses at risk of erosion have:
- Falling property values
- Inability to sell property
- loss of major assets and cost of getting a new home
- Example : Holderness pig farm - impacts are difficult to assess
- Exeter to London railway damages cost £35 million
b) Coastal flooding and storm surge events have serious economic and social
consequences for coastal communities in both developing and developed countries
- Developing country : Bangladesh Storm Surge ( Facts in previous breakdown)
- Deaths : 15,000 and US$1.7 billion damage
- Developed Country : Europe- mainly The Netherlands and the UK
- Around 2500 coastal properties were flooded
- 15 deaths across the countries effected and £100 million damage
- Philippines 2013 Typhoon Haiyan : 4-5m storm surges
- Damage of US$2 billion and 6,300 deaths
c) Climate change may create environmental refugees in costal areas
- Louisiana : Isle De Jean Charles
- Isle De Jean Charles has lost 98% of its land
- The government want to move them all as a hurricane would completely destroy houses
- Population has decreased from 400 to 85
- Farming is now impossible
- Chitimache-Chocotaw tribe has to relocate after being there since the 1800s
- A refugee is defined as ‘ a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to
escape war, persecution or natural disaster’
- The inhabitants aren't refugees as they are not leaving their own country, just relocating
- Tuvalu : Developing
- Most land is around 1-2m above sea level
, - 80% work and live on the coast of the island
- Water supply is limited
- Coral bleaching is destroying corals which were natural coastal defences
- Small economies based on tourism and fishing which can be easily disrupted
- High population density and limited space so no relocation option
Geography Consolidation 2B.11
THERE ARE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO MANAGING THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH COASTAL
RECESSION AND FLOODING
a) Hard engineering approaches ( gryones, sea walls, rip raff, revetments, offshore
breakwaters) are economically costly and directly alter physical processes and systems
- Advantages of Hard Engineering :
- Can protect stretches of the coast for decades
- Protects people along the coast
- Disadvantages of Hard Engineering :
- Costs are very high and maintenances are ongoing
- Prone to failure
- Makes coastlines visually unattractive
- Have negative impacts along the coast
- Rip- Rap ( Rock Armour ) = Large igneous or metamorphic rock boulders
- Purpose = Break up and dissipate energy. Used at base of sea walls
- Impact = Reduces wave energy, sediment deposited between rocks, becomes vegetated
- Sea Wall = Concrete with steel reinforcement and deep foundations
- Purpose = Flood barrier, absorbs energy
- Impact= Destruction of natural coastline, Can reduce beach volume
- Gryones = Vertices timber fences built at 90 degrees to the coast
- Purpose =Prevent longshore movement of sediment, encourage depositional & widen beach
- Impact = Deposition and beach accretion & prevention of longshore drift
- Rock Breakwater = Large rocks weighing several tonnes
- Purpose = Forces waves to break offshore rather than on the coast- reduces wave energy
- Impact = Deposition encouraged but can interfere with longshore drift
- Revetments= Stone, timber or interlocking concrete sloping structure, which are permeable
- Purpose = To absorb wave energy and reduce swash distance, reduced erosion
- Impact = Reduced wave poor, encourages deposition
b) Soft engineering approaches (beach nourishment, cliff regrading and drainage, dune
stabilisation) attempt to work with physical systems and processes to protect coast and
manage changes in sea level
- Soft engineering works with natural processes
- Types of Soft engineering :
- Beach Nourishment = Involves artificially replenishing the sediment on the beach
- Reasons why beach nourishment is needed
- To replace sediment lost by erosion
- To enlarge the beach so wave energy is dissipated
- Increase value of beach by adding fresh sand
- Disadvantages of Beach Nourishment :
- Ongoing costs are very high; new sediment is required every few years
- Finding a sustainable source of sediment that doesn't effect the rest of the sediment cell is
hard
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