Coastal Landscapes - Recession at the Holderness Coast

Holderness Coast As An Example:
  • Rapid retreat impacts people property and the access to roads.
  • Rotational slumps (mass movement) forming a steep-terraced cliff profile and land forms which threaten paths etc.
  • Has receded up 4km in 2000 years
  • Europe’s fasted eroding coastline
  • Many towns have been lost and coastal recession is affecting many towns
Physical Factors:
Human Factors:
Marine Erosion: Wave type, power, angle of wave attack, and frequency of storms, how high tides are.
Old poor quality sea defences or none at all.
Geology: Lithology, rock type, structure, unconsolidated material, sub-aerial processes like weathering and mass movement
Other sea defences up the coast that trap sediment and therefore reduce sediment down the coast which will lead to more erosion
Morphology: Narrow beach, headlands, offshore bars, exposure to the North Sea
Why Does Holderness Coast Erode:
  • Boulder clay (unconsolidated material)
  • Areas with no sea defences
  • Storms and waves which are powerful in winter
  • Little sheet from the open north sea
  • Sub-aerial processes like rotational slumping is common.
Boulder Clay in Detail:
  • Cliffs expand to the powers of long fetch and storm waves
  • Sub-Aerial processes retreat the coast as machine weathering from rainfall leading to rotational slumping
  • At high tide storm waves hit the cliff and sediment hitting the cliff
  • Wave cut notches forms when waves attack undercuts the cliff causing it to collapse
  • Weak geology as unconsolidated material breaks easily with some hydric action
How Can Humans Interfere With Recession Rates?
  • Mapleton, a rock amour groin was built to trap sediment from long-shore drift and to also widen the beach. This means more sands is collected and buffers the wave energy before it hits the cliff therefore reducing erosion.
  • This starves the coast father down and the beach gets smaller therefore recession rate increases known as sediment starvation
  • Today Mapleton has increased erosion further down the coast and no materials is supplied from longshore drift.
Coastal Recession Change:
  • Wind direction, fetch, tides, seasons, weather systems and storms all change temporally i.e. through time such as long arm or short term as well as spatially.
Bangladesh Delta:
  • Soft sediment from the Ganges River is ‘dredged’ to keep waterways open for boats.
  • This increases erosion as sediments are removed
  • Manure trees on the coast are cut down – these naturally protect the coast from erosion.
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