Geography- Whistable Coast Project

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GCSE Geography Coursework

Coastal Management at Whistable

Does Long shore Drift exist in the Whistable (North Kent) Coast?

Name: Hari Kumar

Form: 10C

Candidate No: 5104

School: Dartford grammar school

Centre No: 61103

Coastal Management at Whistable

Hari Kumar 10C

- England                        

Chapter 1- Introduction

 

Geographical Background-The Theme of my investigation is Coastal management in Whistable. Coastal management is the act of stopping or slowing down natural processes such as erosion, this is done by using different types of coastal management such as sea wall and groynes.

There are several different themes and ideas that revolve around the coast. One is the idea of coastal erosion; there are four main types of coastal erosion. And they are Hydraulic (the constant force of the waves crashing against the shore), Abrasion (where material being carried by the waves wears away the cliff), Attrition (this is where rocks and pebbles being carries by the wave are smashed against each other) and Corrosion (where acidic solutions in the water dissolve away the rock).

The Weather conditions at the time of the trip were: Very windy, Cloudy with a couple of sunny spells. The direction of the wind was South- west and the wind speed was around 20mph.

The two processes of transportation and deposition happed due to two different types of waves, Constructive and Destructive. Constructive waves are a lot less powerful than destructive waves; they tend to deposit and transport away material as they have a strong swash on the shore and a weak back wash. While destructive waves are the opposite- they appear during storms, they are very strong and violent; they tend to remove material from the coast as their backwash is much stronger than their swash. This is relevant to Whistable as there is long shore drift.

Information sources

Through out by project, I have used two types of information, primary and secondary.

Primary Data- Data that you have got yourself and is not someone else’s, examples of primary data are results taken form field work like the LSD survey, beach profile etc, photos that you have taken yourself.

Secondary Data- Data from other sources than your self- not your own information; examples are books, magazine, internet (wikipedia, Google images etc), and the Whistable tourist website.  

Back Ground Information:

Humans use the coast line in various. It plays an essential part of the economy in that local area. The coast attracts a lot of tourists as it is a popular holiday destination, so there is a big tourist industry there. Also as it is near the sea, there is also a big fishing industry- Whistable especially has a big oyster industry (it even hosts the annual oyster festival).

Coastal Management in place at Whistable includes 49 timber Groynes, 100,000 cubic meters of shingle beach replenishment and a refurbished sea wall.

Hypothesis- The aim of this investigation is to test my hypothesis that:

Long shore drift exists in the Whistable coast

What I expect to find is a certain pattern of results from the experiments we did during the trip. For example the best one that we did to prove long shore drift would be the ‘Long shore Drift Survey’, where we would expect the dog biscuit to travel in the direction of the prevailing wind. The reason for this is because long shore drift usually travels in the direction of the prevailing winds. I can also refer back to my text book which had a diagram showing the direction of the prevailing winds goes west to east when you see it from Whistable’s view.  

The reason why I am studying this hypothesis is because long shore drift plays a key part in coastal processes and is just as important as the erosion processes. Long shore drift is responsible for the transportation and deposition of material along the coast. Further more I personally find it interesting and it is part of the AQA course.

Key words- There are several key words that are relevant to my investigation on Whistable. They will be words that I will use throughout this investigation. They include:

Erosion- is the wearing away and breaking up of rock and beach material.

Transportation- The movement of material

Long shore drift (LSD) - Is the cause of transportation of material along the coast through a zigzagging pattern along the shore. The direction of LSD is largely determined by the direction of the prevailing winds.  

Deposition- When the sea drops sand, rocks and pebbles that it has been carrying; this is done by constructive waves as they have a stronger swash than backwash

Coastal Management- To protect land use from things like erosion and flooding.

Managed Retreat – This is the use of natural ways to resist erosion instead of concrete solutions

Hard Engineering – Is the use of human made solutions to combat erosi

Mapping/Location+ Background research - Whistable is a sea side town located on the north coast of Kent, England, United Kingdom. It is part of Canterbury Local Council (5 miles away form Canterbury). It is situated near the Thames estuary and near an offshore wind farm; this makes a big impact on the economy as it provides energy for the town and even offers boat tours to the area for around £60.

It has a population of around 30,000 people and is known as the ‘pearl of Kent’ because of the fame for hosting the annual oyster festival. It is a popular destination for holiday makers and water sport enthusiasts. It has a shingle beach and fishing & tourism make up a large part of the town economy. Its fishing industry also has a big impact on the town, it brings a lot of money to the area and creates a small local fish industry and market as well as sea food restaurants.

To the west of Whistable (2 miles), there is also another area called SeaSalter. The main land here is used for farming; this land here is nearby the coast and is quite easily prone to flooding without any coastal management. But the land is relatively inexpensive, so if it does flood- it won’t make much of an impact. Near the area where we briefly visited is a local yacht club.  There is currently a curved sea wall protecting the area behind- but that is over 54 years old and some groynes. It was built in 1954. It is made of concrete and soil and is 6m high. It protects a road and farm land behind it from the regular tidal waters. Near the residential areas, beach nourishment has been added to enhance protection. It is near an estuary area.

The reason for choosing this location is because the area is an excellent example of coastal erosion and coastal management to use for studying the coast. The town is a good example as it suffers form erosion and has implemented coastal management strategies, which we are also learning about. Also it is conveniently located not too far from our school as to visit it.    

 

Ordinance Survey Grid reference of Whistable- TR 10 7667

Chapter 2 – Data Collection and Recording

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Planning the Field trip -

In this chapter I will go over all the different techniques and methods (methodology) of this investigation. During the trip to Whistable, we used several different techniques to gather and record data. But I will only talk about the data collection that is relevant to long shore drift as that is what I am focusing on.

But before the trip there were several safety points that we had to go over, such as that stay with the group, listen to your teachers and follow the signs. The teachers even had to visit ...

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