To what extent should Walton-on-the-naze be protected from the sea?

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Sam Caddy

Introduction

In this piece of coursework I am studying Walton-on-the-naze. I will decide at the end of this piece of coursework to what extent Walton-on-the-naze should be protected from the sea.

Walton-on-the-naze is a part of the east coast of England which is situated in Essex. It sticks out and faces the North Sea.

The title of this project is about what extent Walton-on-the-naze should be protected from the sea. The title is basically asking for me to take a side, do I think that the sea should be left to take a natural course or should Walton-on-the-naze be protected from the sea. I have then got to explain my reason for my views.

Chapter 1

(What is the naze like?)

In this chapter I will be discussing what the naze is like. I will be describing what land uses there are, what the landscape is like and what geology there is behind Walton-on-the-naze.

There is a land uses map on the next page of this project, it is basically illustrating the land uses Walton has in birds-eye view.

Land uses:

There are many different land uses for Walton-on-the-naze; there are residential uses, recreational uses, services, a nature reserve, agriculture, tourist shops, and industry.

The residential uses in Walton are all the homes that have been built in the old coastal town, such as the beach houses built right by the coast.

Recreational uses in Walton are; the tourism and amusements such as the naze nature reserve.

Services in Walton include a sewage works, a nature reserve, and local police stations.

There is also a Sight-of-specific-interest (SSSI) in Walton-on-the-naze. Sea defences have been built to defend parts of Walton in hope of saving the small coastal town.

The sea defences were mainly built in the past to maintain land back in the days of war when a lot of Walton was used, and still is used for agriculture use.

Agriculture was used a lot when Britain was at war, what happened was when the British were at war with the Germans, the Germans kept using their U-boats to destroy all supply ships which ere attempting to supply Britain with crucial supplies. But there was a big problem most supplying ships never made it to Britain, this was Germany’s idea of getting Britain to surrender, but the British government made a comeback and started producing agriculture all over Britain so they did not have to rely on anyone else for supplies. Anyway Walton was one of many places used for agriculture to aid Britain because of very fertile soil and this was one of the main reasons why sea defences were built back in the past, and still stay maintained today but for other reasons now.

There are also tourist shops in Walton which helps to increase the number of tourists that come to Walton every year. Roughly Walton gets visited by about 700,000 tourists a year.

Walton also has several industries; they have a sewage works and in the past they used to be a major cloths manufacturing plant.

There are also salt marshes in Walton; the salt marshes could make Walton extra money if they majored in a salt industry.

Geology:

So what geology is there behind Walton-on-the-naze? Well Walton is one of the most famous places in the world for finding fossils (this is the main reason for Walton being a SSSI). The fossils mainly consists of marine life forms, the most commonly found fossils are the seven gilled sand shark teeth and the Mackerel shark teeth.

Also Walton-on-the-naze is eroding extremely fast; this is because of the material the cliffs are made off. The top layer is made of Topsoil, then underneath this is the Red crag, and underneath this is the London clay which is the only impermeable layer. Basically because clay is so soft it erodes, and collapses very easily. The diagram above shows this with the flow of water that goes through the top layers that are permeable, what happens is because water and sea water that goes through the two top layers, the top layers become very vulnerable because the water pushes through small gaps of the clay and soil which loosens these layers and makes them crumbly, plus the water flowing through the permeable layers lubricates the layers which makes it very easy for the permeable layers to collapse. Also because sea water runs through the top layers of the cliffs too, what happens is when the water exits the cliff’s top layers it leaves salt deposits behind which expand the small holes in the top layers of the coastal cliffs which again helps make the cliff even more crumbly which eventually makes the cliffs collapse more and more.

The diagram above is a good illustration of what is happening to the coast of Walton-on-the-naze the softer, permeable layers at the top are collapsing, so Walton coast experiences a lot of landslides; however the bottom layer (London clay) is impermeable and very hard clay which means basically the bottom layer gets left behind and the sea very quickly rises above this lower level of the cliff.

Landscape:

So what is the landscape like in Walton? Well there is a small town, and a lot of farming space which is used for agriculture. Walton in general is pretty flat and very close down to sea level. As you get further away from the sea the contour changes very quickly from being 20m above sea level to going below sea level The landscape of Walton is also covered with concrete sea walls and allsorts of other kinds of sea defences which protect parts of Walton’s coast.

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Chapter 2

(What evidence is there of the sea affecting the naze?)

In this chapter I will be explaining what evidence there is of the sea affecting the naze. There are a lot of different theories which all contribute to the sea affecting the naze.

The different theories of the sea affecting the naze are; hydraulic action, Abrasion, Attrition, and Long-shore drift.  

Definitions:

Hydraulic action:

Hydraulic action is when waves hit the coast and force air into cracks of rock ...

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