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Learning to leave the coast alone
Sea defences are always unsightly and often expensive. But it is possible to work with nature and not against it – and it costs nothing.
The coast is one of the most rapidly changing parts of the environment. Many countries spend large amounts of money on ‘defending’ their coasts. This is money they would not have to spend if they worked with the coast instead of against it.
Understand that coasts will
always erode
Coastal waves work like this (picture ):
• Waves erode some parts of the coast.
This produces sand.
• The waves carry the sand along the coast.
This uses up energy so the waves don’t
erode these parts of the coast very much.
• The sand finally settles out and makes
sandbanks. The waves don’t erode this part of the coast at all.
If you stop the waves eroding naturally, you will upset the way the coast works, and the waves will simply erode somewhere else. Protecting one place usually puts another place in danger.
Look to see where the waves
are eroding
It is easy to find out what the waves are doing. Look to see where cliffs show fresh signs of wear. Where this happens, the waves have lots of energy to erode the cliffs. It makes sense not to build where the cliffs erode quickly.
  You can decide where and where not to build by finding out first what the waves are doing.
Headland of soft rock erodes quickly. Do not build here.
Narrow beach means fast erosion. Do not build here.
SOFT ROCKS
Erosion caused
40
Headland
of hard rock erodes slowly
Sand moves this way
Harbour wall blocks flow of sand
Direction of common storm waves and winds.
Most sheltered part of bay. Build here.
by harbour wall.