Coastal erosion
Hard engineering techniques
Soft engineering techniques
Why defend it?
Rock armour
Revetments
Groynes
Gabions
Sea walls
Offshore breakwaters
Beach nourishment
Managed retreat
Presence of fragile ecosystems
Valuable economic areas
People live and work
in coastlines
would recover in a long time
Ways of managing the coast
Hard engineering
Soft engineering
May have a negative impact
Unsustainable
Expensive
Landscape
Natural environment
Less impact
Long term
Less expensive
Natural environment
Works alongside natural processes
Sustainable
Built along the base of cliffs
Prevent
Erosion
Flooding
Often curved
Waves are reflected
Can cause
Erosion of beach
Expensive
Visually intrusive
High cost of maintenance
Barriers
From wood
Built at right angles to the beach
Trap sediment
Not attractive
Stop it being moved
Longshore drift
Expensive
Built
Maintain
Large boulders
Placed along the base of a cliff
Absorb energy from waves
Protects the cliff
Expensive
Obtain
Transport the boulders
Wooden or concrete slatted barriers
At the top of beaches
Protect the base cliffs
When waves break against them
Cheaper than others
Less visual impact
Not suitable when wave energy is high
Metal cages
Enclose rocks and boulders
Absorb the energy from waves
Less expensive than a sea wall
Short lifespan
Unattractive
Large concrete blocks and boulders
Located offshore
Reduce the power of the waves
Change their direction to reduce longshore drift
Beaches and cliffs retain their natural appearance
Breakwaters
Unaattractive
Expensive
Replace beach material
Creates higher and wider beaches
Transporting sand and shingle
Sometimes from off-shore
Preserve natural appearance of beach
Cheap
Dredging of sand and shingle
Increases erosion in other areas
May affect the natural environment
Areas of coast
Areas where the land is of low value
Eroded material encourage
Natural environment is not destroyed
People
Farmers lose their land
At base of sea wall
Development of beaches and saltmarshes
Allowed to erode and flood
Removed by erosion and longshore drift