Coastal Erosion :: science

coastal ErosionWith Reference to examples discuss the view that coastal wearing is caused by human intervention as a posed to natural processes.For umpteen decades the approach to rapid coastal eating away was to build up ocean defenses, to try and slow down or even stop the erosion. initially the attempts were thought a success, however after some years it was realised that the power of the sea and waves could everywherecome human attempts. Only could protection be a success if huge costs were going to be involved. many a(prenominal) methods around the British Isles befuddle taken place in he last 50 years with many failures occurring. It is very rare to happen upon a coastline that shows a decrease in the rate of erosion all over many years after defenses are in place. In accompaniment in places the defenses seem to have speeded up the erosion process. Coastal erosion is a natural process of erosion, transportation and deposition, interfering with this balance could be to blame for the rise in erosion on the coasts of some areas. Groynes have been built out to sea in many areas of the British coastline. Their pay back is to trap material and thus slow down the rate of tenacious bank drift. However, these seawalls in some areas are been blamed for the rise in erosion rates further down the coast. On the Holderness coastline in Humberside, erosion is taking place at a rate of about 2 meters per year. A farsighted this coast there is a strong action of long shore drift taking place, which over centuries has produced a spit to bod on the southern tip of Holderness, called Spurn Head spit. The spit is over 4km long and 100 meters wide. The majority of this coastline is glacial till, a soft sparse material, which is easily eroded. This however is not thought of as the only solid ground for the rapid rates of erosion. Human interference is thought to be other cause, as a result of the sea defenses put in place. A rock groyne was built at Mappleton, to create a wider beach. This in turn would help protect the coastline, by absorbing the wave energy. thusly at Withernsea a concrete sea wall with a swill back and boulder rip-rap in front of it was created. These defenses were to cause great problems. The groyne meant that material moving down the coast by long shore drift would get stuck behind the groyne.