What are the social and environmental impacts of different coastal management schemes?

Evaluating the effectiveness of different coastal defences is a common requirement at GCSE. Through fieldwork techniques which critique such defences, students not only develop a greater understanding of the defences themselves, they learn evaluative skills that they can apply to many other areas of the curriculum. With a focus on social and environmental impacts, many elements of the data collection, presentation and analysis below can easily be adapted to suit a similar evaluation of flood defences in the river topic.

Specification links

AQA  3.1.3.2   The costs and benefits of the following management strategies: • hard engineering – sea walls, rock armour, gabions and groynes • soft engineering – beach nourishment and reprofiling, dune regeneration • managed retreat – coastal realignment.

3.1.3.2   An example of a coastal management scheme in the UK to show: • the reasons for management • the management strategy • the resulting effects and conflicts.

Edexcel A  1.4   The advantages and disadvantages of different coastal defences used on the coastline of the UK (hard engineering, sea walls, groynes and rip rap and soft engineering, beach nourishment and managed retreat) and how they can lead to change in coastal landscapes.

Edexcel B 4.5   Why there are costs and benefits to, and conflicting views about, managing coastal processes by hard engineering (groynes and sea walls) and by soft engineering (beach replenishment, slope stabilisation) as well as more sustainable approaches (‘do nothing’ and ‘strategic realignment’ linked to Integrated Coastal Zone Management).

Eduqas A 4.2.1   How ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ engineering strategies may be used to reduce the risk of erosion and flooding at the local scale. Contrasting opinions about ‘hold the line’ and ‘managed retreat’ options in relation to one low lying coastline at risk of sea level rise (for example, North Norfolk or Essex)

Eduqas B 2.1.2   Contemporary management options to reduce risk of coastal floods/erosion. Coverage must include: · costs/benefits of hard engineering options such as sea walls, groynes, gabions and rock armour · costs/benefits of soft engineering options to include beach nourishment, beach stabilisation and wetland creation · concepts of ‘hold the line’ and ‘retreat the line’.

Data Collection

Location: A section of coastline with at least one coastal management strategy in place.

Time required: Full day

Equipment list: Data collection sheets; Clipboard; Rope or string; Buckets; Pebbles colour coded with nail varnish

Pre-trip preparation:

Though not essential, it is useful for students to have a broad understanding of how different coastal defences work and to have seen images or videos of them working in situ. If the field site has a variety of defences this can be done in the field itself with students observing the defences in action.

Students should also have some background knowledge of key factors that define and identify the field site. Researching the area that holds the coastal defence in terms of its resident demography (through Census 2021) and its position in the national picture of deprivation (through Indices of Deprivation 2015 and 2019 (communities.gov.uk)) will provide students with background knowledge that will help them piece together why certain coastal defences may be seen as more or less socially effective then others. Students might also wish to see if any area of the defended coastline falls under a protected status (such as an AONB or a SSSI) through a site such as Magic Map Application (defra.gov.uk).

Tasks and activities

If there is a safe and clear vantage point of a coastal defence (for example from the shoreline) it is a good idea to start the fieldwork activities with time to observe the defence in action. Using a smart device, students can produce a thirty second video of the coastal defence with themselves providing a voice over, explaining how the management technique is defending the coastline.

Students can then carry out a Coastal Management Effectiveness Survey (CMES). Similar in design to an Environmental Quality Survey, the CMES uses a bipolar or weighted score against a number of variables which students can observe. These might include

• Whether the coastal defence enhances or worsens the look of the coastline
• Whether the coastal defence allows for habitat creation / destruction for wildlife
• Whether the coastal defence improves or removes access to the beach

as well as other criteria that students feel are important given their pre trip research of the local area.

Students can survey different parts of a single coastal defence or different coastal defences (including areas of no defence) if the field site has them. This activity could be done individually or in groups with average scores being calculated later.

An engaging data collection technique that is both memorable to students and likely to yield high numbers of respondents at a field site is an oversized ‘living Likert’ scale. Using a large length of rope laid out in a public place, members of the public are asked to place a marker (such as a pebble) in a bucket at a point along the rope that best represents their level of agreement or disagreement about a statement, with one end of the rope representing strong agreement and the other strong disagreement (below).