General

• What is hard engineering?

  Working against nature by creating man-made structures to stop waves from eroding beaches/the coastline
• What is soft engineering?

  Working with nature to manage the coastline whilst limiting environmental damage
• Pros and cons of groynes?

  Pros

  • Fairly inexpensive
  • Effective at trapping sediment over time
  • Potential tourism increase

  Cons

  • Starves further of coast of sediment
  • Can appear unattractive
  • Wooden groynes rot over time, require maintenance
• Pros and cons of beach replenishment?

  Pros

  • Easy to maintain/carry out
  • Increased tourism
  • Blends in with natural environment

  Cons

  • Requires constant maintenance due to longshore drift
• Pros and cons of revetments?

  Pros

  • Breaks up waves energy as it meets coastline
  • Fairly inexpensive

  Cons

  • High maintenance
  • Looks unattractive/unnatural
• Cliff regrading/drainage

  Cliff regrading - the angle of the cliff is reduced to stabilise it.

  Drainage - removes water to prevent mass movement

  Pros

  • Drainage is cost effective
  • Works for certain types of geology/soil where other measures don't work

  Cons

  • Drained cliffs can dry out entirely and collapse
  • Cliff retreats, putting settlements at risk
• Marsh creation

  This is a form of managed retreat - low-lying land is flooded to become a salt marsh

  Pros

  • Quite inexpensive
  • Blends with natural environment
  • Increased biodiversity as it creates a new habitat for wildlife

  Cons

  • Farmland can be lost, making it economically inefficient as farmers have to be compensated
• Dune stabilisation

  This is where marram grass is planted to stabilise dunes, or dunes are fenced off to keep people away from dunes

  Pros

  • Blend with natural environment
  • Provides habitats for wildlife
  • Niexpensive

  Cons

  • Planting the marram grass takes a long time