Trace the History of Coastal Defence in the UK

The first 200 words of this essay...

Trace the History of Coastal Defence in the UK

Coastlines display enormous diversity. This is due to the variety and complexity of the factors influencing coastal morphology. In very general Davisian terms, any shoreline is a product of "structure, stage and process". In other words, in analysing any shoreline, one must take into account structural factors such as the arrangement of different rock types and their resistance to wave attack and solution, as well as other geological considerations such as the angle of dip and pattern of bedding and jointing of sedimentary strata, The form of any shoreline is also a product of its age and the stage reached in its evolution; that is to say, one must take into account former geological processes and earlier changes of climate and sea-level which may have produced particular features of the present coastline. Finally, the contemporary processes of coastal erosion and deposition operating on the shoreline are obviously important in determining its form, as are various other physical, chemical and biological processes operating above the tidal zone, together with human activity which is a rather specialized but important cause of coastal change. The multiplicity of factors involved and their local variations