Lesson video

Hello and welcome.

My name is Ms. Harrison.

I'm so looking forward to learning with you today.

Today's lesson is called Cost and Benefits of Management Strategies.

Grab everything you might need for today's lesson and let's begin our learning.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the different types of coastal management strategies and you'll be able to evaluate their cost and benefits.

Before we can begin this learning, we need to define the keywords we'll be using throughout today's lesson.

The keywords are value, hard engineering, soft engineering, and stakeholder.

Value, this is how important an error is either socially, economically, or environmentally.

Hard engineering, this is the use of artificial structures to protect coastlines from erosion and flooding.

Soft engineering, this is making use of natural processes to reduce erosion and flooding in a way that minimises environmental impact.

Stakeholder, this is any groups or individuals involved in or interested in changes that are being made at the coast.

Fantastic, now that we've defined these words, we can begin our learning.

The first question we're going to explore in today's lesson is what's the shoreline management plan? Coastal management is essential as it helps to protect communities and their environments.

In Camber Sands, they use a variety of different methods to protect their community and environments.

For example, they have groins, dunes, sea walls, and they use beach nourishment.

These are all methods used to ensure that erosion and flooding is minimised to protect the community.

A shoreline management plan is a long term plan for managing coastal areas.

It considers a number of different factors environmentally, are there any endangered species in the area? Social factors, is there a large population there? Economic factors, does the area provide a lot of money to the economy? And from there they will decide what management plan will be used.

The first management plan that can be used is managed retreat.

Managed retreat allows for certain areas to erode or flood in a controlled manner.

This approach is often adopted for low value land where it can create natural habitats and reduce long-term maintenance costs.

As you can see on the image, they'll encourage people to relocate their properties further inland and they will allow the beaches and the cliffs to erode naturally.

Hold the line is where existing defences are maintained to keep the current coastlines position.

This approach is often chosen for high value land areas.

For example, coastal settlements with high tourism with large populations.

As you can see on the image, there are revetments, sea walls, rock armour, and embankments in place here to make sure that the coastline stays in its current position.

Advance the line requires defences to be extended further out to sea, to increase protection from erosion.

This method is really expensive and as a result it's not used very often.

Advance the line is only used in cases where there is a very significant need to increase protection of land from the sea.

As you can see in the diagram, there is beach nourishment taking place to extend the width of the beach offshore break waters reducing the strength of the waves and salt marshes protecting coastlines.

Do nothing is another approach, and this allows natural processes to continue without any intervention.

This is used in errors with low population density and really low economically valued land.

As you can see, the beaches and the cliffs are allowed to move inland without any protection.

Let's test our knowledge.

Which of these best defines the aims of Shoreline Management Plan? Is it A, a plan for managing coastal areas in terms of erosion and flood risks? B, a plan focused on building and managing new tourist attractions on the coast or C, a strategy for raising investment for coastal management for local businesses? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Fantastic, the answer to this question is A, a plan for managing coastal areas in terms of erosion and flood risks.

Well done.

True or false? Managed retreat is when management strategies are put in place to widen beaches due to the land's economic value.

Pause the video here whilst you decide if this is either true or false and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent.

The answer is false.

I would now like you to explain why the statement is false.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Fantastic, the reason why this statement is false is because managed retreat allows for certain areas to erode or flood in a controlled manner.

This approach is often chosen for lower value land where it can create natural habitats and reduce long-term maintenance costs.

I would now like you to define the following methods, often considered in a Shoreline Management Plan, they're do nothing, managed retreat, advance the line and hold the line.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Fantastic.

Well done for attempting this task.

Your answers might include some of the following points.

Do nothing, this allows natural processes to continue without any intervention.

Managed retreat, this allows for certain areas to erode or flood in a controlled manner.

Advance the line, this requires defences to be extended further out to sea to increase protection from the erosion.

Hold the line, this is where defences are maintained to keep the current coastline position.

Well done if you manage to get your answers correct.

The next question that we're going to be looking at is what are coastal management methods? Coastal management is really important along the coast and there are two main methods of coastal management.

The first is soft engineering, this is making use of natural processes in order to manage change at the coast in a more environmentally-friendly way.

Hard engineering, this is artificial structures that act as a physical barrier to natural processes operating at the coast.

Now we're going to investigate some of the hard engineering methods.

The first hard engineering method we're going to look at are sea walls.

Sea walls are physical barriers at the base of the cliffs that deflect the power of the waves.

Like you can see on the image on the screen.

They have positives and negatives to them.

The positives of sea walls are that they're effective at preventing erosion and flooding and sea walls usually have promenade so people can walk along them so they provide another alternative for tourists to engage with the local area.

Negative, they're expensive to build and really costly to maintain.

They're also not very visually pleasing.

Groins groins are built at right angles to the shore, which trap sediment being transported by longshore drift.

As you can see on the image, the groins are out into the sea, which stops the sediment moving further down the beach.

The positives of grains are they slow down beach erosion and they help to create wider beaches.

Negatives are that they starve other beaches of sediment further down the coastline as sediment is not able to be transported, they also need frequent maintenance and that can become costly.

Rock armour, they use large boulders to absorb wave energy.

This means that they're going to be less strong waves hitting the coastline.

They're effective in the sense that they're cheaper than a sea wall and they're much easier to maintain and they can be used to fish from, which will help local fisheries.

The negative is they look different to the local geology as the rocks are usually imported because they have to be a lot more resistant than the rocks in the local area.

The rocks are also very expensive to transport and this can be costly.

We're now going to look at some soft engineering coastal management methods.

Beach nourishment is a perfect example.

Beach nourishment involves dumping of sand and shingle back onto a beach to replace eroded sediment.

It's effective because it helps beaches to absorb wave energy and it widens beaches, which is really great for popular tourist destinations.

The negatives are that it has to be repeated regularly because the sediment will be transported through the actions of the wave, which means it's going to become really expensive.

It also impacts on sediment transportation further down the coast.

Dune stabilisation is when marram grass is planted on sand dunes to stabilise the dunes.

Dunes naturally absorb wave energy and they protect coastlines from erosion.

The positive of them is that they're cheap and they maintain a natural looking coastline, which can be really positive for tourist destinations.

The negative is that they can get damaged by storm waves and newly planted areas are zoned off from the public so people can't walk through them.

Reprofiling, reprofiling is when sediment is redistributed from lower parts of the beach to the upper parts of the beach.

It's effective in a sense that it restores the beach profile so that it can absorb more weight energy.

It's also cheap and maintains a natural appearance.

The negatives are the beach is not accessible while reprofiling is being done, and this can take some time.

It has to be repeated frequently.

For example, after storm events, and this can become quite costly.

Let's test our knowledge.

What is the aim of hard engineering methods? Is it A, to conserve coastal ecosystems and habitats? B, to create a physical barrier protecting coastlines? C, to maintain a natural looking coastline for local residents and visitors? Pause the video here whilst you decide and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent.

The answer is B.

Hard engineering methods are used to create a physical barrier protecting coastlines.

Which image shows hard engineering? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent, the images that show hard engineering are A and B, that it's A and B, because there are physical artificial barriers that are put in place to stop erosion.

Well done.

What method is this? Vegetation is planted on sand dunes to strengthen dunes and reduce erosion.

Is it A, dune stabilisation.

B, rock armour.

Or C beach nourishment? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent.

The answer is A, dune stabilisation.

I would now like you to complete table on the following coastal management methods.

We've decided to focus on groins and sea walls, which are hard engineering methods and beach nourishment and using stabilisation which are soft engineering methods.

I would like you to provide a description of what each of these methods do to prevent erosion and flooding, and then I would like you to discuss the advanced and disadvantages of each of them.

Pause the video here whilst you attempt this task and press play when you're ready to continue.

Great work.

Let's check our answers.

Your answers might look a little bit like this.

Groins description, barriers built at right angles to the beach to trap sediment.

Advantages, they reduce erosion and they widen the beach.

Disadvantages, they can increase erosion elsewhere and they require significant maintenance.

Sea wall, its description, their concrete walls that deflect wave energy.

The advantages they reduce erosion and flood risk.

Disadvantages their expensive and need maintenance.

Beach nourishment, the description, adding sediment to beaches to replace eroding material.

The advantages, it widens beaches and absorbs wave energy.

Disadvantages, it needs regular upkeep and disrupts natural sediment flow.

Dune stabilisation.

The description of this is planting marram grass to stabilise dunes.

Advantages maintains natural looking beaches that absorb wave energy.

The disadvantages, newly planted dunes are often zoned off so people cannot walk on them.

Well done if you managed to get your answers to look something like this.

Let's now investigate our final question of today's lesson.

What's the issues with coastal management? Different stakeholders have different views on coastal management due to their different interests.

This can then lead to conflict between the stakeholders.

Laura has noted that she thinks local communities would be in favour of coastal management strategies because it protects their homes and businesses.

Jun has said that he thinks councils might be against it if it'll cost them lots and lots of money.

Environmentalists emphasise the importance of preserving natural ecosystems. They may argue against hard engineering methods like sea walls because they disrupt the habitats for lots of plants and animals.

Instead, environmentalists may argue that soft engineering methods are much better like restoration of natural barriers.

For example, salt marshes and dunes.

In coastal areas that rely on tourism, businesses often support strategies that enhance the beauty and accessibility to the coast.

For example, hard engineering defences that make getting onto the beach more difficult might not be popular with some stakeholders.

Local residents prioritise protecting their homes and livelihoods.

They often advocate for immediate action to prevent erosion and flooding.

Laura has said that a lot of them will save.

No action is taken lots of families will have to move and they may lose their jobs and this can be really difficult, especially if you've been living there for several years.

Government and policy makers often have to balance the needs of various groups while considering the long-term economic sustainability of coastal management.

An integrated coastal zone management approach can be used.

This involves incorporating lots of different stakeholders in developing a coastal management strategy.

It tries to make sure economic, environmental, and community needs are all addressed as far as possible.

Let's test our knowledge.

Which of these stakeholder groups would be most likely to support hard engineering methods of coastal defence? A, environmentalists concerned about coastal habitats? B, residents campaign to protect houses from erosion or C, local councils facing budget cuts? Pause the video here and decide and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent.

The answer is B.

Residents campaigning to protect houses from erosion are more likely to support hard engineering methods of coastal defence.

True or false? An integrated coastal zone management approach is focused on saving money by choosing the least expensive method.

Pause the video here was you decided this statement is true or false and press play when you're ready to continue.

Fantastic.

The answer is false.

I would now like you to explain why this answer is false.

Pause video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent, the reason why the statement is false is because an integrated coastal zone management approach involves the different stakeholders in developing a coastal management strategy.

It tries to ensure that economic environments and community needs are all addressed far as possible.

I would now like you to use the stakeholder statements below to explain why there are conflicting views about coastal management.

A local resident had said that 34 houses have already gone and more at risk from erosion.

If we don't invest in coastal defences, more will be lost.

A business owner has said protecting the coast is important for tourism and helps our economy to grow.

An environmentalist has said, I'm worried about coastal management.

Sea walls can harm local wildlife and might cause erosion in other coastal areas.

A local counsellor has said, I don't think coastal management is a good idea.

The costs are high and it won't stop erosion in the long run at all.

So you need to use these stakeholder statements to explain why there are going to be conflicting views about coastal management at the coast.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to continue.

Excellent work Well done for attempting this task.

Let's check our answers.

This is not exactly how your answer should look.

This is an example of some of the points that you may want to include within your work.

One argument in favour of coastal defences is that they protect homes and businesses.

According to one of the statements, 34 houses have already been lost and more at risk of no actions taken.

Without defences, the situation can worsen leading to further destruction.

Coastal protection could also benefit tourism, which is important for the local economy.

As a second stakeholder points out, the area could lose income if its beaches and attractions are damaged by erosion.

However, there are concerns about the effectiveness and the impact of these defences.

One stakeholder mentions that sea walls, while protecting one error, can increase erosion further down the coast.

This means that solving one problem could create another.

Another issue is the cost.

Building sea walls and other hard engineering defences is expensive and as another stakeholder suggests, it might not be a long time solution as erosion could continue despite the efforts.

In conclusion, while coastal management could help protect homes and boost the local economy, the environmental risks and high cost make a difficult choice.

Investment in the coastal defences is clearly necessary to protect high value locations, but it should be balanced with environmental protection and long-term planning.

Soft engineering methods together with coastal management strategies of managed retreat could meet the needs of the stakeholders in a way that reduces costs and environmental impacts.

This answer is great because it's made sure it's addressed all the different stakeholders concerns and it's clearly demonstrated why they're conflicting views about coastal management.

The conclusion is sound as it's summarised at the points that have been discussed and has provided a comprehensive understanding of what coastal management is and how to appease all stakeholders needs.

Fantastic, we've now come to the end of our lesson on Costs and Benefits of Management Strategies.

You've done brilliantly in today's lesson.

Let's summarise what we've learned so far.

A Shoreline Management Plan is an approach to managing coastal erosion and flood risks that balances environmental, economic and social considerations.

Hard engineering methods like sea walls offer high levels of protection but are expensive and can exacerbate erosion elsewhere.

Soft engineering methods such as beach nourishment are more sustainable but require ongoing maintenance.

Stakeholders, including local communities, environmentalists, and businesses have different priorities leading to a need for collaboration to address these varied interests effectively.

Well done in today's lesson.

You've done brilliantly and I look forward to learn with you again very soon.