Coasts

• a beach is created from swash and backwash. The strength of swash and backwash deters the size of the beach
• longshore drift is when the swash transports sediment to form a beach and the backwash draws the sediment back out to sea, This happens in the direction of the longshore drift
• groynes


  wooden structure parallel on a beach disrupting the process of longshore drift. Can lead to terminal groyne syndrome
• sea wall 


  a concrete wall created along the coast to stop waves from attacking/ eroding the land. However this is an eye sore and expensive.
• groynes

  hard engineering
• sea wall

  hard engineering
• beach nourishment


  this is when sand and shingle from the shore is collected and shot back out of a machine onto the beach to keep the beach wide. cheap but noisy and easily ruined
• sand dune generation

  planting vegetation on sand dunes so that roots of the plant hold the sand dune together and protect form trampling by people. Not that effective or long lasting.
• beach nourishment

  soft engineering
• sand dune regeneration

  soft engineering
• offshore reefs 


  enormous rocks or even tyres sunk to offshore to alter the wave direction (fetch). Expensive and difficult to install. reduces erosion power
• offshore reefs

  soft engineering
• rip rap (rock armour)


  the placement of large boulders on the edge of a cliff or on the beach to protect the coastline. not effective in storm conditions and dangerous for tourists, blocks beach
• bars are created when a spit forms across a bay connecting two headlands
• headlands are resistant rock that hasn't yet been eroded and left protruding out to sea
• bays are sheltered land in between two headlands that has eroded inwards and has retreated overtime. usually where a beach will form
• a spit is an extension of beach sediment that goes out to sea and off the coastline. It is a depositional landform. spits are created by longshore drift and the ned of a spit can curve and shelter a salt marsh
• wave cut platforms are erosional formations. The rock at the high tide waterline erodes creating a wave-cut notch and continued to erode until the cliff collapses and a platform is left behind. The cliffline retreats
• the prevailing wind is the direction of the waves
• the direction of the waves is called

  fetch