Should Cowden be protected?

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Should Cowden be protected?

Although, the erosion rates have decreased at Mappleton. It is obvious that the defences made to this town has increased the erosion rates in other places without defences. The erosion rate at Cowden, which lies directly south to Mappleton, has increased. The erosion rate has gone from eroding 2.54 meters a year in the 80’s to eroding at 3.78 meters a year at present.

       A newspaper article that shows how the erosion rates at Cowden have affected the people who have farms on cliff tops. Mrs Earls talks about the fact that the erosion of a cliff in Mappleton caused ‘Topper (her) our pregnant cow, to fall over the cliff when it collapsed.’ She also mentions that when her ‘uncle bought the farmhouse in the1960’s, it was more than 60 metres from the cliff top; now it is only a few paces from the edge.’ This shows that erosion rates in Cowden have shot up so high, that she will soon have to lose her home to the sea. She also mentions that transport is a problem as ‘the road has gone right off the cliff.’ As a farmer she probably depends on transport a lot, as she has to transport goods from one place to another.

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       The article also states that the council’s decision to build a protective wall at Mappleton has set in motion a series of events, which has made Cowden even more vulnerable to erosion. This supports data from the graph.

In order to protect Cowden from further erosion, the government will need to adopt a suitable defence mechanism, which has limited number of disadvantages. Groynes could be built on the coast, where the oncoming sand can get trapped on the North side of the groynes. This would result in a build up of a beach, which would in ...

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