Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tackling Coastal Depositional Features Exam Questions (1)
View Geo Book-Tackling Coastal Depositional Features Exam Questions (1)
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tackling Coastal Erosion Question (Retry)
Look in Geo Book-Tackling Coastal Erosion Question (Retry)
Success Criteria About Tropical Rainforests(17/5/12)
1. To understand the characteristics of a tropical rainforest and understand what factors effect it
2. To be able to understand the key elements required for the CA
2. To be able to understand the key elements required for the CA
Food Chain Food Webs Notes and Exercise
Look in Geo File- Living World-Food Chain Food Webs Notes and Exercise
Sunday, May 13, 2012
British Woodland and Hedgerow
Look in Geo File- Living World
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Living World Topic Summary and Overview
See geo book (2)
-Living World Topic Summary
-Living World Overview
-Living World Topic Summary
-Living World Overview
Tackling Coastal Erosion Questions (1)
SEE GEO BOOK (2)-Tackling Coastal Erosion Questions (1)
Holderness Case Study (Coastal Management)
Location Map
Mappleton is located on the Holderness Coast in East
Yorkshire in the United Kingdom
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What’s the problem?
L
The coast are is made up of mainly cliffs (20-30 m)
L
The coastline is being eroded at a very fast rate (1m/ yr) 4 km of land has been
lost since Roman times
L
Easington Gas Station (part of the North South Gas Terminal) is situation at
the top of a cliff
What are the factors that make Mappleton vulnerable to
erosion?
·
Cliffs are made of soft boulder clay
·
The coast of Holderness is exposed, the waves
can have a very long fetch
·
The waves are mainly destructive
·
The beaches are very narrow, since most of the
material eroded is washed out to sea, this does very little to protect the
coastline
·
Sea level rise threatens the coastline further
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What are the impacts?
Social
- People may have to move or
retreat if the coastline continues being eroded
- Possible loss of life, not
likely humans but maybe animals
-Depression and anxiety may
happen as people’s home and farmland are threatened
Economic
-Compensation has to be paid to
people who have to move or relocate
-Money has to be paid to repair
and protect the coastline
-Redundancy
- Country may experience
losses
Environmental
-Vegetation and plant life
destroyed
-Natural landscape destroyed
-Loss of habitat for flora and
fauna
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How it is managed?
Hard Engineering
· In 1991, the decision was taken to protect
Mappleton. A coastal management scheme costing 2 million was introduced
involving two types of hard engineering
· – Blocks of granite were imported from
Norway for sea defences at the bottom of the cliff and for the two rock
groynes.
· 2 rock groynes were constructed in 1991 to
encourage the build up of beach in front of Mappleton by trapping longshore
drift. This meant that that waves would break on the beach rather than
attacking the cliffs. The rock groynes have stopped beach material being moved south from Mappleton
along the coast. (However, this has increased erosion south of Mappleton).
· There is also placement of rock armour
along the base of the cliff and the construction of sea walls and revetments
as wave-resistant
structures at the base of the cliffs.
· Artificial off-shore breakwaters like tyres and
concrete blocks were built, forcing waves to break off-shore.
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Range of stakeholders in Mappleton Holderness Council : This is a small authority with low total annual budget. Spending a large amount of money to protect a village is hard to justify. The decision for protecting Mappleton is yet to be decided. Ministry of Agriculture : Moving towards the policy of managed retreat. Although towns, villages and roads would be protected, farmlands and even isolated houses would be regarded as dispensable and allowed to disappear. There are food surpluses in the Europe so they are no longer need every bit of farmland. Farmers : Do not want their land to be destroyed. They ask for even coastal protection so that farmers living in Southern Mappleton would not be at greater risk from the sea. |
What my opinion is…
I suppose that the council should use a mixture of hard
and soft engineering depending on the location if for example farmland and
town areas hard engineering would be good, while areas with tourist district,
soft engineering would be recommended
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Soft Engineering (Pros and Cons)
Soft Engineering
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Soft engineering uses natural systems such as mangrove and
dunes to protect the coastal area. They do this by manipulating and
maintaining these natural structures instead of changing their fundamental
structures
Some methods include:
-Beach Nourishment
It is done by importing sand and shingle to an area
affected by longshore drift.
J
Natural defense against erosion and coastal flooding
J
Attracts tourists
L
Requires regular maintenance as material is constantly swept away from the
beach
-Managed Retreat
Erosion is allowed to occur, this is done to areas of low value
J
Encourage the development of natural defense landforms such as beaches and
salt marshes
J
Low cost
L
People may have to be compensated for loss of
from buildings houses and farmland
|
J
Low Costs
J
Does not change the landscape of the surrounding area
J
Retains the original form of a structure of the landform
J
Little reduction of a landform’s usefulness level
J
Less impact on the surrounding environment
J
Usually long term methods and are sustainable
|
L
Requires regular maintenance
L
The defense levels of the landforms may shift over time
L
Less likely to be effective in harsh storm conditions
|
Coastal Management Techniques
Coastal Management Strategies
Hard Engineering
|
The coastline is totally protected, this method of
engineering usually use man made structures.
Methods include rock armor, groynes , sea walls or flood
barriers
|
Soft Engineering
|
Natural defenses are used to protect the coastline, this
method usually uses natural methods of defense.
Methods include beach nourishment and marsh creation
|
Managed Retreat
|
Do nothing and allow the coastline to change by itself
Methods include stopping repairs on sea defenses or
abandoning the coastline to nature
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Sea Level Rise Case Study: Tuvalu
Consequences of rising sea levels
Case Study: Tuvalu
|
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Describe the location:
It is located in in the Pacific Ocean, midway between
Australia and Hawaii. It’s some of it’s nearby neighbors are Fiji and Samoa.
They are formally known as Ellice Island
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Location map + sea level rise
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Explain why it is vulnerable to sea level rise…
The island is only 5m in height which makes it extremely vulnerable
to rising sea levels, experts predict that Tuvalu will disappear by 2050.
·
The highest wave called King Tide is 3m high
·
Tuvalu is located in a area where the sea
levels are particularly high
·
Most of the island are made of coral reefs,
since they are porous, water can seep into inland areas
·
Most of Tuvalu’s infrastructure such as the
airport is located by the coast, so it poses an extreme risk
·
They have very little fresh groundwater and
have to rely on rainwater for fresh water
|
Predicted IMPACTS (SEEP) Evidence please..
Social
-Evacuation of people to the main island of Funafuti,
which now host half of Tuvalu’s population.
-Overcrowding due to the huge inter migration to the main
island.
- People are forced to leave islands such as Tipuku
Salvilivili has already been abandoned due to the rapidly rising sea levels
swallowing the island
-The island main source of food, Pulaka is being killed by
the intrusion of saltwater, this leads to diminish in food supply.
-Travelling on the island becomes a problem as it is
constantly flooded
Economic
-Coconut plantations are being killed off, this is
concerning as dried coconut meat plays a large part in Tuvalu’s economy
-Hotels and buildings are constantly being flooded, this
hampers trade, business and tourism
- Access to the island becomes limited due to the seawater
covering the runway, this hampers materials from being imported into Tuvalu
Environmental
-Groundwater will become undrinkable as the sea water
heads inland
-Crops cannot be planted as the seawater intrudes into the
plantations
-The world would be alerted to global warming by using the
sinking of Tuvalu as an example
Political
-The G3 might be held responsible for not rectifying the
Kyoto protocol
|
What is being done to prevent OR manage the threat?
-Houses and buildings are being improved to combat
flooding such as implementing ten foot stilts and raise the house to prevent
it from being damaged by floods.
-The citizens are Tuvalu are being evacuation to either
the mainland or to nearby countries such as New Zealand
In general terms, the government is planning to evacuate
the entire population of Tuvalu before in sinks into the ocean, the current
outlook for Tuvalu is looking bleak
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Rising Sea Levels Notes and Exercises
The Rising Sea Levels Notes
1. What are the differences between prediction and
prevention?
Prediction: To foresee a possible event that might occur
in the near or distant future
Prevention: To stop a certain event that from happening or
arising
2. What does global warming have to do with rising sea
levels?
With the temperatures of the world rising, the glacial in
the polar caps start melting causing more ice to melt into water, thus
resulting the sea levels to rise.
|
Several factors of sea levels rising:
-Glacial Melting
-Ice from the polar caps melting
-Thermal Expansion (When water heats up, it expands and sea
levels rise)
Causes of sea level rising:
Climate
|
Sea Level : (Rise, Fall)
|
Reason?
|
Warm Climate
|
Rise
|
Due to glacial caps melting causing the glacial to melt
into water, causing more water to be deposited into the ocean
|
Cool Climate
|
Fall
|
As the water in the ocean start freezing in glacial caps,
the water in the ocean starts decreasing.
|
There are two types of changes in sea levels
Eustatic Change: There are global changes were the global
sea level rises or falls, they either rise during the warm climate and fall
during the cooler climate.
Isostatic Change: These are global changes of the land mass
rising or falling , this is commonly due to ice on land melting, causing the
land to rebound due to the pressure rising or falling
UGG Textbook Practice Exercises
Pg 125
a.
In the United Kingdom, the majority of areas
at risk of coastal flooding and erosion is located on the east of the United
Kingdom, most of it is located in King’s Lynn and while London is also prone
to coastal flooding. Also, located on the east of London, Bristol also has
areas which are prone to lowland flooding. Also on the west of the United
Kingdom, Liverpool has many areas which are prone to flooding. Lastly,
Carlisle also has lowland areas which at risk from coastal flooding
b.
These areas are more prone to erosion due the
fact that longshore drift is taking materials away, since these areas face
the rough Atlantic ocean, there are more destructive waves thus causing more
material to be eroded and taken away.
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