Coasts Booklet

Coasts Case Study Guide

By Mr Federici

Coastal Ecosystems

Small Scale in the UK – Oxwich Bay, Wales

Overview

Coastal dunes – important ecosystems as they contain 50% of flowering plants in Britain.

Important buffer between land and sea. Act as a store for sediment.

Sand dunes form spatially / chronologically –

1 Embryo Dunes

Fore dunes

Mobile Yellow Dunes

Grey Dunes

Problems

Extensive development of bracken – invasive species which reduces plant diversity and increases soil acidity

Erosion of dunes – trampling by walkers, horse riding and camp fires damage vegetation and expose sand to wind.

Litter – 100 tonnes cleared every year. Visually polluting, and can harm wildlife, especially small mammals.

Management

Managed by Welsh Nature and 2 park rangers. Upkeep of footpaths and fencing managed areas.

Habitats managed by controlling scrub invasion (bracken bruising). Over stable dunes destabilised to increase plant diversity.

Visitor management – signposts, leaflets and trails. Building new education centre.

Introduced sand traps, fencing, replanting marram grass (from 1978).

Coastal Ecosystems

Small Scale in an LEDC – Ban Don Bay - Thailand

Overview

Located in SE Asia, Ban Don Bay is a group of 3 islands.

All 3 islands are surrounded by coral reefs.

Tourism and fishing are the industries and are therefore threatening the coral.

Problems

Tourists touching the coral and boats anchoring to the reef kills the living coral polyps.

Waste from hotels and runoff from roads washes into the sea around the islands threatening the coral.

Dynamite and cyanide fishing destroys the reef and removes fish which are essential for the survival for the coral (symbiotic relationship).

Management

Not to prohibit the use of the reef but to ensure that locals use them in a sustainable way.

Management scheme aims to:

Educate locals and tourists about the importance of corals.

Ban destructive fishing

Monitor water quality for pollution

Legislation on pollution from sewage, industry and agriculture.

Coastal Zoning – Three zones were set up:-

Sanctuary Zones – 100% protection – no fishing or tourism allow to protect very diverse reefs.

Conservation zones – limited range of activities allowed with restrictions.

General use zones – greater range of non destructive activities permitted – eg fishing.

Conclusion : Coral reefs have got better protection as locals and therefore tourists are using them more sustainably, however fishermen are concentrated in a smaller area and therefore further work has to be done to set up fairtrade fish quotas to prevent overfishing.

Short Term Changes in Sea Level 1953 Storm Surge and coastal flooding What is a surge? Surges are caused mainly by the action of wind on the surface of the sea, with air pressure changes a secondary factor. When pressure decreases by one millibar, sea level rises by one centimetre. Thus, a deep depression with a central pressure of about 960 mb causes sea level to rise half a metre above the level it would have been had pressure been about average (1013 mb). Around the UK, the effect of a strong wind coupled with very low pressure can be to raise sea level in eastern England more than two metres.

Background Info

The greatest storm surge on record for the North Sea occurred on 31 January and 1 February 1953. The surge height reached 2.74 m at Southend in Essex, 2.97 m at King's Lynn in Norfolk and 3.36 m in the Netherlands.

Main Causes

Very low pressure (960mb) causing the sea level to rise

Strong winds from the Arctic creating 6m high waves

Rivers discharging into the North Sea at flood levels

Effects

During the afternoon of the 31st, the shingle spit of Spurn Head in Yorkshire was breached

Later that evening, embankments around The Wash were overtopped and people were drowned in northern Norfolk. Fifteen died in King's Lynn and another 65 between there and Hunstanton. At Wells-next-the-Sea, a 160-ton vessel was left high and dry on the quay.

By midnight, Felixstowe, Harwich and Maldon had been flooded, with much loss of life. Soon after midnight, the sea walls on Canvey Island collapsed and 58 people died. At Jaywick in Clacton, the sea rose a metre in 15 minutes and 35 people drowned.

The surge travelled on. From Tilbury to London's docklands, oil refineries, factories, cement works, gasworks and electricity generating stations were flooded and brought to a standstill.

In London's East End, 100 metres of sea wall collapsed, causing more than 1,000 houses to be inundated and 640,000 cubic metres of Thames water to flow into the streets of West Ham. The BP oil refinery on the Isle of Grain was flooded, and so too was the Naval Dockyard at Sheerness.

Impact of human activity on a stretch of coastline Tourism and Recreation on the Dorset Coast

Background

Tourism is Dorset’s most important industry, consisting of a range of small and medium sized businesses.

Railways, car ownership and more expendable income have led to steady growth in Dorset’s tourism industry since the 1970’s.

Tourism in Dorset provides 38,000 jobs and generates an annual income of £830 million.

The coastline is the main attraction with over 3.5 million staying visitors annually and 13 million day visitors.

Impacts of Tourists

Although tourists bring many economic benefits to Dorset they also create problems, mainly environmental.

Seasonal Closure of recreational facilities

Congestion on narrow country lanes and along motorways (M27)

Infrastructural overload

Second homes for tourists pricing local people out of the housing market.

Conflicts

Because the coast is used for many activities there are a range of conflicts between different users:

Diving and fishing in Portland harbour – divers get caught in fishing lines but also disturb the catch.

Walkers and local residents – footpath erosion, litter.

Management

The Dorset Coastal Forum Strategy – brings together all the main interest groups – residents, businesses, land owners, National Trust, Tourist Board, Environmental Groups.