Physical Landscape (UK)

• Coastal erosion - The wearing away of rock or sediment along the shoreline by waves, tides, currents, wind and ice.
• Deposition - When material is deposited on the beach as a result of wave action.
• some soft engineering methods are river dredging and beach regeneration
• some hard engineering methods are revetments, groynes, rock armour and sea walls
• River dredging involves removing silt from rivers to increase their capacity so that they can carry more water during flood events.
• Beach regeneration involves adding new sand to beaches to restore them to their original shape and size.
• Longshore Drift is when the waves influenced by the prevailing winds move sediment along the coast. Backwash always happens as 90 degrees to the coast and swash comes back to the coast at an angle. Longshore Drift can be stopped by groynes because they stop sediment moving
• Coastal Landforms formed by deposition are spits, tombolos and salt marshes
• abrasion is when the waves throw rocks at the coast
• attrition is when rocks bump into each other
• solution is when acidic liquids (like rain) where away certain rocks because they cause a chemical reaction
• hydraulic action is the power of the waves
• bays are created from differential erosion and waves/ hydraulic action creating an area in a cliff where material can be deposited
• beaches are made up of sand or shingle which has been transported along the shoreline
• spit is a long narrow piece of land that sticks out into the sea
• a drainage basin is an area of land that collects water
• a watershed is the "line" that seperates one drainage basin from another
• a tributary is a smaller river connected to a larger river. They are usually found upstream
• a flood plain is usually low lying land that floods when rivers overflow
• a confluence is the point where two rivers meet
• coastal landforms: Beach, bay, spit, tombolo, stack, stump, arc, headland, cliff, cove, cave, salt marsh and blowhole
• hard engineering is less asthetically pleasing and is very expensive but is more reliable
• soft engineering keeps the landscape natural and is cheaper than hard engineering, however it can be unsuccessful