Coastal Management (Edexcel IGCSE Geography)

• Management of coastal regions is performed by identifying coastal cells
• This breaks a long coastline into manageable sections and helps identify two related risks:
  • The risk of erosion and land retreat 
  • The risk of flooding
• Identification allows resources to be allocated effectively to reduce the impacts of these risks
• The 'cost-benefit' is easier to calculate using coastal cells

• Shoreline Management Plans (SMP) set out an approach to managing a coastline from flooding and erosional risk
• The plans aim to reduce the risk to people, settlements, agricultural land and natural environments (salt marshes etc.)
• There are four approaches available for coastal management, with differing costs and consequences:
• Hold the line
  • Long term approach and the most costly
  • Build and maintain coastal defences so the current position of the shoreline remains the same
  • Hard engineering is the most dominant method used with soft engineering used to support
• Advance the line
  • Build new defences to extend the existing shoreline
  • Involves land reclamation
  • Hard and soft engineering is used
• Managed realignment
  • Coastline is allowed to move naturally
  • Processes are monitored and directed when and where necessary
  • Most natural approach to coastal defence
  • Mostly soft engineering with some hard engineering to support
• Do nothing
  • Cheapest method, but most controversial of the options
  • The coast is allowed to erode and retreat landward
  • No investment is made in protecting the coastline or defending against flooding, regardless of any previous intervention

• Decisions about which approach to apply are complex and depend on:
  • Economic value of the resources that would be protected, e.g. land, homes etc
  • Engineering solutions - it might not be possible to 'hold the line' for moving landforms such as spits, or unstable cliffs 
  • Cultural and ecological value of land - historic sites and areas of unusual diversity
  • Community pressure - local campaigns to protect the region
  • Social value of communities - long-standing, historic communities

• Hard engineering involves building some form of sea defence, usually from concrete, wood or rock
• Structures are expensive to build and need to be maintained
• Defences work against the power of the waves 
• Each type of defence has its strengths and weaknesses
• Protecting one area can impact regions further along the coast, which results in faster erosion and flooding
• Hard engineering is used when settlements and expensive installations (power stations etc) are at risk - the economic benefit is greater than the costs of building structures

Hard Engineered Defences

• Soft engineering works with natural processes rather than against them
• Usually cheaper and do not damage the appearance of the coast
• Considered to be a more sustainable approach to coastal protection
• However, they are not as effective as hard engineering methods

Soft Engineered Defences

• There are conflicting views about using a particular type of engineering for coastal defence
• Most coastal managers aim to use a range of methods depending on the value of what is being protected
• This method is known as Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
• ICMZ aims to use a combination of methods to best reflect all stakeholder needs