What is a sea wall, and what are its benefits and costs?

It is a concrete or stone barrier built along the front of a cliff or promenade that throws waves back out to sea and prevents both flooding and erosion. It is one of the most expensive options to build and repair, and the reflected water can scour away the beach in front of it.

What are gabions, and what are their benefits and costs?

They are wire cages packed full of rocks and stacked at the base of a cliff to soak up wave energy, and they are cheap and can be built quickly. The cages rust and burst open after a few years and most people think they look ugly.

What is a groyne, and how does it protect the coast?

It is a timber or rock barrier built out into the sea at right angles to the shore, which traps material being carried along by longshore drift so that a wider beach builds up against it, and a wide beach absorbs wave energy before it reaches the land.

What is the main drawback of protecting a beach with groynes?

They stop sediment reaching the coast further along, so that stretch is starved of material, erodes faster and may then need defences of its own.

AQA GCSE Geography 8035

Climate Change

Topic overview The evidence, causes and effects of climate change Managing climate change: mitigation and adaptation

Coastal Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview Waves and coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition Coastal landforms of erosion and deposition Identifying landforms on a stretch of UK coastline Coastal management: hard and soft engineering, and a UK scheme Managing the Holderness coast at Mappleton

Cold EnvironmentsLiving world option

Topic overview Cold environment characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Cold environment biodiversity Opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environment Protecting wilderness: balancing development and conservation

Ecosystems

Topic overview Ecosystems at every scale: interrelationships, balance and global distribution

EnergyResource option

Topic overview Energy surplus and deficit, and why demand is rising The impacts of energy insecurity Strategies to increase energy supply Towards a sustainable energy supply

FoodResource option

Topic overview Food security and insecurity: patterns, causes and impacts Strategies to increase food supply Towards a sustainable food supply

Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry

Topic overview Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sources Risk assessment in fieldwork Primary and secondary data, and sampling methods Justifying your data collection methods Choosing and using presentation methods Describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork results Anomalies in fieldwork data Drawing conclusions from an enquiry Evaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing data How reliable were your conclusions?

Geographical Skills

Topic overview Atlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patterns Reading thematic maps for physical and human associations OS maps: scale, grid references, distance and direction OS maps: gradient, contours and landscape features OS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferences OS maps: transects, landscape description and human activity Comparing maps, sketch maps and photographs Describing landscapes from photographs, and annotating them Choosing and constructing the right graph or chart Completing choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line and flow maps Reading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line maps Number, scale, proportion and ratio, and designing data sheets Drawing conclusions from numerical data Averages, spread, percentages and correlation Spotting weaknesses in how data is presented Using maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidence Using imagery, written, visual and graphical sources Using numerical and statistical information as evidence Framing an enquiry and writing about it Building an argument and reaching a conclusion Issue evaluation: stakeholders, options and a justified decision

Glacial Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview The last ice age in the UK, and glacial processes Glacial landforms of erosion, transport and deposition Identifying landforms in a glaciated UK upland Economic activity, conflict and tourism in glaciated uplands Tourism in the Lake District

Hot DesertsLiving world option

Topic overview Hot desert characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Hot desert biodiversity Opportunities and challenges of developing a hot desert Desertification: causes and how the risk is reduced

Natural Hazards

Topic overview What a natural hazard is, and what affects hazard risk

Resource Management

Topic overview Why food, water and energy matter, and how unequally they are shared Resources in the UK, and the changing demand for food The UK's changing demand for water and energy

River Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview The long and cross profiles of a river, and fluvial processes River landforms from source to mouth Identifying landforms in a UK river valley Flood risk, hydrographs and flood management strategies A UK flood management scheme and its effects

Tectonic Hazards

Topic overview Plate tectonics, plate margins and where earthquakes and volcanoes occur The effects of and responses to a tectonic hazard Contrasting earthquakes: Chile 2010 and Nepal 2015 Living with tectonic risk: monitoring, prediction, protection and planning

The Changing Economic World

Topic overview Classifying development, and how it is measured Why measures fall short, the Demographic Transition Model, and causes of uneven development The consequences of uneven development Closing the development gap, and tourism as a strategy A rapidly developing country: change, industry, aid and impacts Nigeria: a newly emerging economy Economic futures in the UK UK economic change: named examples

Tropical Rainforests

Topic overview Rainforest characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Rainforest biodiversity Deforestation: rates, causes and impacts Deforestation in the Amazon The value of rainforests and how they are managed sustainably

UK Physical Landscapes

Topic overview The UK's upland areas, lowland areas and river systems

Urban Issues and Challenges

Topic overview Global urbanisation: patterns, trends and what drives them The rise of megacities A major city in a poorer or emerging country, and planning for the urban poor Rio de Janeiro: growth, opportunities and challenges The UK's urban population and a major UK city Bristol: urban change in a major UK city An urban regeneration project Sustainable urban living and urban transport

WaterResource option

Topic overview Water surplus and deficit, and why demand is rising The impacts of water insecurity Strategies to increase water supply Towards a sustainable water supply

Weather Hazards

Topic overview Global atmospheric circulation: pressure belts and surface winds Where tropical storms form, and why The structure of a tropical storm, and the effect of climate change The effects of and responses to tropical storms Reducing the effects of tropical storms Weather hazards in the UK An extreme weather event in the UK, and evidence of more extreme weather

Coastal Landscapes in the UK

Coastal management: hard and soft engineering, and a UK scheme

3 things to know
Paper 1 section C

Overview

Hard and soft engineering compared, the benefits and costs of sea walls, rock armour, gabions, groynes, beach nourishment, reprofiling, dune regeneration and managed retreat, and the reasons, strategy, effects and conflicts of a coastal scheme.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Which three things should you be able to explain about the coastal management scheme you studied?

Key term

What is the difference between hard engineering and soft engineering at the coast?

Key term

What is rock armour, and what are its benefits and costs?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is the difference between hard engineering and soft engineering at the coast?
Model answer
Hard engineering uses built structures to stop the sea from reaching the land, while soft engineering works with natural processes to build up the coast's own defences.
2
What is a sea wall, and what are its benefits and costs?
Model answer
It is a concrete or stone barrier built along the front of a cliff or promenade that throws waves back out to sea and prevents both flooding and erosion. It is one of the most expensive options to build and repair, and the reflected water can scour away the beach in front of it.
3
What is rock armour, and what are its benefits and costs?
Model answer
It is a line of very large boulders piled at the foot of a cliff or wall, which absorbs wave energy before it reaches the land and is cheap and quick to put in place. The boulders usually have to be brought in from elsewhere, look out of place, and can be shifted by the strongest storms.
4
What are gabions, and what are their benefits and costs?
Model answer
They are wire cages packed full of rocks and stacked at the base of a cliff to soak up wave energy, and they are cheap and can be built quickly. The cages rust and burst open after a few years and most people think they look ugly.
5
What is a groyne, and how does it protect the coast?
Model answer
It is a timber or rock barrier built out into the sea at right angles to the shore, which traps material being carried along by longshore drift so that a wider beach builds up against it, and a wide beach absorbs wave energy before it reaches the land.
6
What is the main drawback of protecting a beach with groynes?
Model answer
They stop sediment reaching the coast further along, so that stretch is starved of material, erodes faster and may then need defences of its own.

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