Hard engineering strategies involve using artificial structures to manage coastal erosion
Soft engineering strategies are a more sustainable and natural approach to manage coastal erosion
Erosion is a natural process that shapes cliffs and can cause cliff collapse over time, necessitating coastal management
Sea walls:
Concrete walls at the foot of a cliff to prevent erosion
Advantages: effective at protecting the base of the cliff, usually have promenades for people to walk along
Disadvantages: waves can still break down and erode the sea wall, expensive (approximately £2,000 per metre)
Rock armour:
Large boulders at the foot of a cliff to break waves and absorb energy
Advantages: cheaper than sea walls, easy to maintain, can be used for fishing
Disadvantages: look different to local geology, expensive to transport
Gabions:
Rocks held in mesh cages in erosion-affected areas
Advantages: cheap (approximately £100 per metre), absorbs wave energy
Disadvantages: not very strong, looks unnatural
Groynes:
Wooden or rock structures built out at right angles into the sea
Advantages: builds a beach encouraging tourism, traps sediment carried by longshore drift
Disadvantages: by trapping sediment, it starves beaches further down the coastline, looks unattractive
Hard engineering management involves using artificial structures, whereas soft engineering management is a more sustainable and natural approach to manage coastal erosion
Soft engineering strategies involve the use of natural, sustainable solutions to control the coast without building artificial structures
Beach nourishment:
Sand is pumped onto an existing beach to build it up
Advantages: blends in with the existing beach, larger beaches appeal to tourists
Disadvantages: needs constant replacement, sand has to be brought in from elsewhere
Reprofiling:
The sediment is redistributed from the lower part of the beach to the upper part
Advantages: cheap and simple, reduces wave energy
Disadvantages: only works when wave energy is low, needs continuous repetition
Dune nourishment:
Marram grass planted on sand dunes stabilises them and helps trap sand to build them up
Advantages: relatively cheap, maintains a natural-looking coastline
Disadvantages: can be damaged by storm waves, areas have to be zoned off from the public, which can be unpopular
Erosional landforms along the coastline include headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks, stumps, and wave-cut platforms
Depositional landforms include beaches, spits, and bars
Headlands and bays form when a coastline is made of different types of rock, with soft rock eroding quickly to form bays and hard rock forming headlands
Cliffs and wave-cut platforms are more common on headlands, while bays are sheltered with constructive waves that deposit sediment to form beaches
Cliffs are shaped through erosion and weathering, with soft rock forming gentle sloping cliffs and hard rock forming steep cliffs
A wave-cut platform is a wide gently-sloping surface found at the foot of a cliff, formed by erosion at the base of the cliff between the high and low water mark
Caves, arches, stacks, and stumps are erosional features commonly found on a headland, formed through processes like hydraulic action and abrasion
Erosional landforms include headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks, stumps, and wave-cut platforms
Depositional landforms along the coast include beaches, spits, and bars
Beaches are made up of eroded material transported and deposited by the sea, often forming in sheltered areas like bays where constructive waves build them up with a strong swash and weak backwash
Sandy beaches are usually found in bays with shallow water and low-energy waves, while pebble beaches form where cliffs are eroded and with higher energy waves
A beach profile has ridges called berms, showing high tide and storm tides, with larger material at the top due to high-energy storm waves and the smallest material nearest the water due to attrition
Spits are extended stretches of sand or shingle jutting out into the sea from the land, forming when sediment is carried by longshore drift and deposition occurs, creating a long thin ridge of material
A spit can grow across a bay, joining two headlands together, forming a bar that can trap shallow lakes known as lagoons, which may eventually fill up with sediment