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