"An investigation into the methods of coastal management along Brighton's Coastline and the reasons for them".

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Geography Coursework

Md. Shahajada Chowdhury 5613      

Mr Ali

Md. Shahajada Chowdhury

11H 5613

Geography Coursework

Mr A. Ali

10548

“An investigation into the methods of coastal management along Brighton’s Coastline and the reasons for them”.

 


Contents

Introduction_________________________________________________________________________4-10

Aims__________________________________________________________________________5

Coastal Management_____________________________________________________________6

Hypothesis_____________________________________________________________________6

Longshore Drift_________________________________________________________________6

Costal Damages_______________________________________________________________6-7

Coastal Protection_____________________________________________________________7-9

Hard Engineering________________________________________________7-9

Soft Engineering__________________________________________________9

Facts on Brighton_____________________________________________________________9-10

Methodology_______________________________________________________________________12-89

Data Collection______________________________________________________________15-25

Beach Profiles________________________________________________16-18

                        Pebble Analysis_______________________________________________19-20

                        Groyne Measurements__________________________________________21-22

Tourism Questionnaires____________________________________________23

Car disc survey__________________________________________________24

Traffic survey___________________________________________________25

Data Presentation___________________________________________________________28-54

                               Groyne Measurements_______________________________________________28-38

                               Pebble Analysis Recording Sheet_______________________________________39-47

                               Beach Profile______________________________________________________48-54

        Description of Results________________________________________________________56-61

Groyne Measurements__________________________________________56-59

Beach Profile___________________________________________________60

Pebble Analysis__________________________________________________61

Analysis of Results___________________________________________________________63-68

Groyne Measurements__________________________________________63-64

Beach Profile___________________________________________________65

Pebble Analysis__________________________________________________66

Surveys; Questionnaires_________________________________________67-74

Methodology__________________________________________70-74

Questionnaire_____________________________________71

Road Tax Survey__________________________________72

Traffic Survey____________________________________72

Maps____________________________________________72

Results_______________________________________73-89

Car Survey________________________________75

Questionnaire___________________________76-89

Conclusion_________________________________________________________________________91-95

Hypothesis 1___________________________________________________________________92

Hypothesis 2___________________________________________________________________93

Hypothesis 3________________________________________________________________94-95

Evaluation____________________________________________________________________________97

Limitations____________________________________________________________________________99-102

Groyne Measurements_______________________________________________________________99

Pebble Analysis____________________________________________________________________100

Beach Profile_____________________________________________________________________101

Questionnaires; Car Disc Survey______________________________________________________102

Appendix_____________________________________________________________________________104-106

Reasons for the type of graph, chart etc____________________________________________105-106

Bibliography______________________________________________________________________________108



Introduction:-

For our Year 10 geography coursework we went to Brighton. The purpose of this visit is to study coastal protection along Brighton’s coastline. The visit is a one-day outing to Brighton, a coastal region situated on the South Coast, this is shown in Figure 1.

        

Figure 1: Location of Brighton in England

Figure 2: Location of Brighton in Europe

Brighton, a small coastline town, depends on the incoming of ‘tourism’ to boost its reputation. These include many attraction sites such as the beach standing out the most dominantly.

Aims:-

  1. Variations of coastline managements along the coastline itself (differences of the managements used and in the specific regions)
  2. The extent of the effects of these managements (how useful they were and to what degree they were used)
  3. The significance of tourism on Brighton’s economy (the level of reliance Brighton has for its tourist system)

Several investigations were taken place to establish the aims, listed above.


Coastal Management

Hypothesis:-

Brighton has its ups and downs, even though it may be booming in popularity it suffers from serious coastal changes.  The coast is badly affected by many types of wave erosion. These all come from the effects of wave erosion deposition; sediment transportation and also deposition. Because of this, the waves are influenced by the coastline destructively.

Longshore Drift:-

In physical geography, longshore drift (LSD) refers to a process by which sediments move along a beach shoreline. The process arises when waves approach the shore obliquely (which in turn is determined by factors such as prevailing wind and fetch). Waves striking the shore at an angle as opposed to straight on will cause the wave swash to move up the beach at an angle. The swash moves the sediment particles (usually sand or shingle) up the beach at this angle, while the backwash brings them straight down the beach. This has the net effect of a slow movement of the particles along the shore. A net movement of water also occurs establishing a longshore current. Longshore drift is one of the principle processes in the construction of spitss, barss and tombolos, and the overall sustainability of beach deposits.

Figure 3: Longshore Drift process

Costal Damages:-

The coast in Brighton is weakening from the effects of erosion itself.  The powerful waves make the cliffs and rocks to form into small particles and shingle that are washed away by the waves. Sometimes, the cliffs fall due to the lack of stableness, caused by these powerful waves.  

The waves carry beach material which goes to the sea from the coast. Due to this the beach wears away. The main aim of a river is to flatten the surface of the land by:

  1. Corrosion - Acids dissolve rocks
  2. Attrition - Rocks hit one another and break into smaller pieces
  3. Hydraulic action - Force of water breaks off part of the bank
  4. Corrasion - Small rocks ‘sand-paper’ or smooth larger ones

Floods caused by built up on river banks of silt or alluvium deposited by river. Over a period of time silt builds up and forms a levee.

These four types of wave erosion contribute to the annihilation of the seashore in Brighton.

Coastal Protection:-

As things like coastal tourism have become more frequent, humans have found it increasingly necessary to attempt to control the effects of the sea. The main reasons for coastal management are:

- To protect the coast from the erosive effects of the sea.

- To increase the amount of sand on the beach.

Many strategies have been tried around the world, and these can be divided into two main groups, hard and soft engineering. Hard engineering methods aim to stop the coastal processes from occurring. Soft engineering methods try to work with nature to protect the coast. Examples of these two strategies are:

Hard Engineering:-

Sea Walls:

  1. Often built in front of seaside resorts.
  2. Very expensive.
  3. They aim to completely block the waves and their effects.
  4. Life span of approximately 75 years.
  5. Can cause the erosion of the beach in front of them.
  6. Socially reassuring for local residents.

Wooden Groynes:

  1. Wooden “fences” built at right angles to the coastline.
  2. They aim to stop the movement of material along the beach due to long shore drift.
  3. Their primary intention is to build up the amount of sand on the beach.
  4. They have a life span of approximately 25 years.

Gabion Groynes:

  1. Large steel mesh cages filled with large rocks.
  2. Aligned at right angles to the coastline.
  3. They aim to do a similar job to wooden groynes.
  4. Expected life span of 20 – 25 years, as the steel will rust.

Soft Engineering:-

Beach Replenishment:

  1. Sand is either brought in from elsewhere, or transported back along a beach, usually once a year.
  2. This is done using trucks, and is therefore very costly and time consuming.
  3. Over the next 12 months the material is washed along the coast by long shore drift, before being replaced again.
  4. The final method of coastal management is of course to do nothing and allow the sea attack the coastline naturally.

Disadvantages of Coastal Management:-

Cost:

  1. Most of the solutions detailed are very costly, and in many places questions are being asked as to whether they are actually worth the money.

Problems of disrupting the natural coastal system:

  1. Whenever you tamper with nature there are going to be knock on effects, which could, in time, become worse than the original problem.
  2. Coastal defence strategies are often much localised, and can cause problems further down the coast. One such example could be seen where groynes are used to trap sediment. Further down the coast there could be a reduction in the amount of material available to protect the coast there. This in turn would mean an increased amount of coastal erosion.

Facts on Brighton:-

  1. One of Britain's newest cities – Brighton & Hove was granted a Royal charter after successfully bidding for city status in 2000.
  2. 8 million visitors per year come to the city-by-the-sea
  3. One of the UK's top 15 destinations for overseas visitors
  4. Revamped Beachfront area 'Special Landscape' winner at the 2001 Civic Trust Awards
  5. The Royal Pavilion - 320,000 visitors a year and nominated
  6. “best history and heritage attraction in Britain” by Holiday Which magazine in 2000
  7. The Brighton Pier - the UK's 2nd most-visited leisure facility
  8. (approx 3.75 million visits pa)
  9. Home to England’s largest annual arts festival - the Brighton Festival - over 700 events in 3 weeks every May.
  10. More restaurants per head of population (400+) than anywhere else in the UK outside London
  11. 3 cinemas, 10 theatres, 5 casinos, 30 clubs, hundreds of pubs and bars and dozens of live music venues and art galleries
  12. Under an hour by train from London Victoria
  13. 74% of our staying visitors are without children
  14. Tourism generates approx £380 million income p.a.
  15. Brighton Centre receives 750,000 visitors per year
  16. Approx 13,000 jobs in the area are in tourism and tourism
  17. Brighton Pier is open 364 days a year?
  18. Brighton Pier has the biggest and best funfair on the South Coast?
  19. Brighton Pier's fish and chip restaurant is second to none?
  20. Brighton Pier's amusement arcades offer state-of-the-art entertainment?
  21. Brighton Pier has three fantastic bars?



Methodology

For this fieldwork of Brighton, we need a numerous number of schemes to continue our work on the studies of costal management and tourism. The countless data collection comprises groyne measurements; beach profile; pebble analysis, which was all carried out in the beach. We also need to construct a tourism questionnaire; field sketches and photographs; car disk survey and last but not least a traffic survey, all situated in Brighton and Hove in various places.

These assignments will exchange over in the hours of daylight making sure all and sundry gets the same technique of data collection.

Figure 4: This is a table showing what method we used, the reason I chose this method and the problems that may be encountered

We commenced with the groyne measurements, this is where the sediments on both sides of the groyne are measured to determine, which side is the innermost. As a result we can conclude that the side which is the innermost is the majority sheltered.

The groyne measurements were carried out in different destinations, actually four sites. Site 1 and site 2 is near Worthing which is situated near the King Alfred leisure centre, site 3 is in close proximity to the west pier and site 4 is conflicting the fishing pier and in the vicinity of the Brighton pier. The map below shows the location of these four located.

Figure 5: The Four sites that we visited in Brighton


Data Collection:-

Coastal Protection is necessary along the Brighton shoreline due to the detrimental effects of Longshore Drift and other such coastal damages. Currently being - coastal protection schemes in Brighton set up by the government.  

 

Data of different types were collected. The purpose of this collection was to determine to what extent the coastal management schemes improved/prevented the negative effects of longshore drift on Brighton’s beach and coastline.

The investigations and collections of data were on:-

  • Groyne Measurements
  • Beach Profiles
  • Pebble Analysis

Reasons for individual experiments:-

The reasons for the groyne measurements were that they would show how effectual the groynes were and in which places they worked supreme Patterns and trends might also have been found. Our intentions were to find out which side of the beach was more sheltered - the east or the west.

The beach profiles had the purpose of being basic reports of the physical properties of the beach. This could then perhaps be used in combination with the groyne measurements for a more detailed nearby into Brighton and its coast.

The pebble analysis was to be one of the smaller of the investigations in which pebbles are measured to link them to the effects of longshore drift and the areas in which the coastal protections had whatsoever an effect.

Intended use of data:-

The information gathered from the experiments will be used in graphs, tables, charts etc. This will show the data collated in easy diagrams which can then be used to analyse, examine and evaluate upon in the latter portions of this particular hypothesis.  


Hypothesis 1: “Does The Amount of Coastal Protection Vary along the Coastline”?

Beach Profiles

Apparatus:-

The following equipments were needed to carry out the measurements:

  • 2 Ranging poles
  • Clinometer
  • Tape measurer


Figure 6: Picture of a clinometer alongside this a ranging pole

Methodology:-

The beach profiles were also done on the four sites mentioned on the previous pages, a beach profile is done to establish the shape of the beach and also to measure the gradient of the beach. In order to carry out the beach profile a total of three people were required.

The beach profiles were carried out on both a constructive and destructive beach. To do this experiment we needed to begin where the waves break on to the beach. At first, a pupil held up a ranging pole; upright and another peer placed the clinometer on to the highest divide between the red and the white bands on to the 1st ranging pole and looked through the clinometer and upright until the line matched up with the same divide on the other ranging pole the clinometer readings were recorded in degrees by the final person.  

Figure 7: Picture of a Beach profile

The diagram of the previous page shows both the summer and winter profile, but we will be examining the winter profile, due to the reason that our day-out was during the winter time. As you can see there is less sediments during the winter, this is because the wind is more concentrated during the winter season. The waves for that reason is rigorously, more rapidly and filled with full potential of energy. The destructive waves wear away the beach more, during winter than in summer since waves are calmer as there is diminutive wind blowing.

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Figure 8: Picture of a Beach profile

 

Figure 9: Diagram explaining how a beach profile is done


Pebble Analysis

Apparatus:-

The following equipments were needed to carry out the measurements:

  • Callipers
  • Tape measurer
  • Grain size chart
  • Roundness table

Figure 10: Picture of a digital calliper

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