COASTS

LESSON PLANS HERE

As featured in Education Guardian, May 2007 - welcome !

Page updated May 2007 as a result...

Coastlines are amongst the most fascinating of all environments. The rate of change within the coastal environment is remarkable. One of the main areas of study is in the protection against erosion. This will be of increasing importance if the predicted levels of sea level change come about. The coast is a battleground, and is also an area which requires management.

Wave breaking on Snettisham beach, NW Norfolk at high tide - June 2002. Notice that the westerly wind brings these waves across the Wash, so they are small in size due to the limited fetch. They area also able to reach almost to the shore before they break because of their small amplitude. Notice the way in which the waves break: only a short swash.

 Picture by Mister P.

Swash breaking on the pebble beach at Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

Picture by Mister P

COASTS WEBSITES

• The fastest eroding stretch of coastline in Europe is the HOLDERNESS COAST. The link takes you to a major page of links and information on this stretch of the East Yorkshire coast. We use this example at Key Stage 3, GCSE and also at AS level. It is one of the fastest eroding coastlines in the world, and has been studied at length, notably by John Pethick.
• A lecture by Dr. (or is it Professor now) Pethick can be found at the NORFOLK AONB site, along with other lectures delivered at 2 conferences in 1999 and 2000. The site also has other information about this particular area.
• There is also quick erosion at BIRLING GAP, and GORING BY SEA, both of which are down on the South coast of England.
• A photographic tour around MAPPLETON, on the Holderness coast again, can be found here. This has been featured in the OCR GCSE, and we have some excellent maps and photos which help to flesh out this case study.
• The COASTLINE 2000 survey, carried out by the Geographical Association was a survey of the nation's coastline. A full set of results and some details on coastal features can be found by following the link at the bottom of the home page of the ANGLIA CAMPUS site (non-subscribers can still access the COASTLINE 2000 data but not the rest of the site.) - Funny how 2000 used to seem so futuristic, and now sounds so old-fashioned....
• One aspect studied is the cleanliness of beaches. There are various bar code surveys that can be done. If you know the first few numbers of a bar code, it tells you the country of origin of a product, so if the barcode remains legible on a plastic bottle, you can tell which country it may have originated from.
• One way of assessing a beach is to look for a Blue Flag, some of which are awarded by the EU, others by the TIDY BRITAIN GROUP (now run by ENCAMS). The beaches which have the coveted award can be seen at SEASIDE AWARDS page, which is run by ENCAMS. They also run a COASTAL CAMPAIGN, featuring images like the one below. Recommended visit.

• There's also the GOODBEACHGUIDE site which is a similar scheme. This is run by the Marine Conservation Society, which has its own standards for water quality.

• For a Virtual fieldtrip to the Dunes of Morfa Harlech go to the GEORESOURCES site. This is a very useful site for all those doing dune systems, but may be more useful for higher level students.
• There's also a site for SPURN POINT: National nature reserve, and the spit example used by many schools. Also featured in a useful report on Countryfile in May 2007.
• There is an excellent case study of the area around Flamborough Head at this CHESTER site. It's designed for Primary level, but the images and data are more than good enough for the Year 7 coasts work we do at my current school.

• Some excellent images of the HOLDERNESS COAST can be found at the Lighthouse site. There are some good images of settlements like Grimsby and Cleethorpes, plus places like Mappleton, Spurn Head and Withernsea. These are excellent, large, free images, and now have some aerial views of Hull, including one of the school where I did my PGCE teaching practice.

• More on the Holderness area at STACEY PEAK MEDIA site, which is Recommended for top quality images.

A recent addition to the Andrew Stacey's excellent STACEY PEAK site is a new collection of images from various locations. Some great images of fieldwork to HAPPISBURGH and DUNWICH, and also some pictures of Australia and Indonesia contributed to Ken Apthorpe. This includes 2 pictures of a place called London Bridge in Victoria. Check out the before and after pictures of the events of 1990 - wonderful image. (Added June 2004)

• Going SURFING ? Try the BEACH WIZARD site or the COLDSWELL site.

• A new find for 2006 is the DORSET COAST DIGITAL ARCHIVE. This has information on 3 THEMES, or Learning Packages. Theme 1 is called 'Physical Changes to the Coast' and has 4 topics (Dorset's Marine and Coastal Habitats, Marine Ecology, Coastal Form Processes and Dorset's Underwater World). Theme 2 is 'Settlements and Society' and has 4 topics (Origins of Growth and Settlement, Life on the land and in the town, Leisure hours, The influence of the Sea). Theme 3 is 'Managing the Coast' and has 4 topics (Impacts of Landslide and Coastal change, History on the seabed, Who's who in coastal management and Marine resources) Recommended.

• SPITS

  There are many around the coast of the UK. Some of them have websites. One which has clearly been in existence for some time is HURST CASTLE SPIT.

  Closer to where I currently live is BLAKENEY POINT, on the North Norfolk coast.

  Down on the Suffolk coast is ORFORD NESS. A National Trust owned area.

  Also recently (well, August 2004) visited DAWLISH WARREN. This is a spit at the mouth of the River EXE, which is opposite Exmouth. The railway line runs alongside the spit, which is a must-do trip.

Fancy swimming in sewage ? Neither do SURFERS AGAINST SEWAGE. Lots of materials - not just surfers, not just sewage...

SAS have now launched a new educational resource: OPERATION BEACH CLEAN.

Here's the details:

Operation Beach Clean is aimed at Key Stage 3 Science, English and Citizenship.  It covers SC1 Scientific Enquiry, SC2 Life Processes and Living Things, English Speaking, Listening and Group Discussion and Interaction.  Under Citizenship it also covers, knowledge and understanding about becoming informed citizens, developing skills of enquiry and communication and developing skills of participation and responsible action.

Try OPERATION BEACH CLEAN by clicking the link...

They also have a NO BUTTS on the BEACH campaign against people stubbing out cigarettes and then burying the butts on beaches.

Some facts:

• Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world.
• Cigarette butts are one of the most commonly found litter items on beaches around the UK.
• Cigarette butts are not biodegradable, but made from 12,000 plastic fibres.
• 1 cigarette butt can take up to 15 years to break down and pollute 3 litres of seawater.  

Imagine going to a beach. It's full of wonderful round pebbles of chert, flint and quartzite. You put half a dozen in your pockets and take them home with you to put on a shelf. So do all the several hundred people a day who sit on the beach. Result ? No beach, or a reduced beach, and therefore a reduced defensive potential... That's why there are fines for the removal of beach sediment from quite a few beaches.

 Heavy fines for people removing pebbles from the beach at Budleigh Salterton.

• One coastal area undergoing a great deal of change is 'the Palm': a huge land reclamation project off the coast of Dubai, which will eventually have 3 major projects, including a series of artificial islands called "The World". The Palm, Jebel Ali is going to be an exclusive residential address, and apparently Premiership footballers are buying homes there. Visit THE PALM's website for more. This is also the subject of a section of work in one of the GEOG DOT teachers' books.

• Details on the TIDES can now be found on the BBC Weather site. Go to the BBC WEATHER site and look for the link down the right hand side of the page. You can get a print out in graphical format of the tide situation on any day for a whole range of ports around the coast of Britain. You can use the graph to work out tidal range, so this could be an activity to develop with higher age groups. I have a tide clock on the wall by the door so that we can always know what the state of the tide will be when going down to the beach.

• Recently came across some useful materials produced by Raffles Girls School in Singapore. There are a few pages which have some useful (if rather rapid) animations on coastal erosion. There is also some information about a particular coastal feature in the area. A group of students from the school recently went on a field trip to Bali and Australia (as you do...) - one of the features that they went to see was a feature called TANAH LOT and the 12 APOSTLES. Tanah Lot is a high energy coastline which therefore has a very dramatic series of landforms. The 12 Apostles are a series of stacks (of which only 7 remain as the rest have collapsed over time), and are found in the Port Campbell National Park in Australia. The animations are good to show the erosion of a headland. There are lots of other SINGAPORE materials on the new Singapore page.

Was recently contacted by Chris, who is behind a newish site called SURFING GENIE

The website aims to get us all visiting UK beaches rather than heading off abroad, and also provides a key resource for those interested in surfing, which is a growing sport in the UK.

Has link to an animated GIF showing the surf height in the Atlantic, and perhaps most useful is a search function which allows you to find a beach to suit your needs within the UK.

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