Holderness

The Holderness coast is located on the east coast of England and is Europe’s fastest
eroding coastline. It loses about 2 metres of land per year due to waves, currents, and
storms. Coastal erosion has both economic and social impacts on the area, such as:

● Economic impacts:
○ Loss of property and infrastructure: Coastal erosion causes damage and loss
of buildings, roads, and other assets along the coast. Property prices also fall
sharply for those houses at risk from erosion.
○ Loss of farmland: Coastal erosion reduces the amount of arable land
available for agriculture. Around 30 villages have been lost since Roman
times, along with their farms and fields.
○ Loss of tourism revenue: Coastal erosion affects the attractiveness and
accessibility of the coast for tourists. Many of the settlements rely heavily on
tourism, and as facilities close down, the settlements are unable to maintain a
good population.
● Social impacts:
○ Displacement of people: Coastal erosion forces people to relocate from their
homes and communities. This can cause stress, anxiety, and loss of identity.
○ Loss of heritage and culture: Coastal erosion destroys historical and
archaeological sites, as well as natural features that are part of the local
identity and culture.
○ Loss of ecosystem services: Coastal erosion degrades the natural
environment and the benefits it provides, such as biodiversity, water quality,
flood protection, and recreation.

East Riding Coastal Change Fund:

The fund offers limited help as it is a fund which allows people to relocate.

The East Riding Coastal Change Fund helps people and communities affected by coastal
erosion in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It offers grants, advice, and guidance for relocation,
demolition, or rollback of properties at risk of erosion.It also provides funding for relocation
such as hiring a van.

Factors which affect the coastal erosion -speeding it up

GEOLOGY:

The Holderness Coast is located on the east coast of England and is one of Europe’s fastest
eroding coastline. The coastline is made up of mainly soft boulder clay cliffs that are easily
eroded by the strong coastal currents and waves of the North Sea. Boulder clay is also
known as glacial till and is a mixture of fine clays, sands and boulders deposited by glaciers
in the last Ice Age. It is structurally weak and has little resistance to erosion, which has
resulted in the formation of shallow, sloping cliffs.

The chalk band that surrounds the boulder clay has created a headland at Flamborough
Head. Erosion along fault lines and bedding planes has created features such as cliffs,
arches and stacks.

Fetch:
- The rate of erosion along the Holderness coast is influenced by wave energy, which
depends on the fetch (how far the waves have travelled).
- Holderness is exposed to winds and waves from the north-east, with a small fetch of
500-800 km across the North Sea.
- Although this is relatively small compared to the fetch coming across the world’s
oceans, the waves attacking the Holderness coast are also influenced by other
factors that help to increase their size and power.

● The Holderness coast is made up of mainly soft boulder clay cliffs that are easily
eroded by the strong coastal currents and waves of the North Sea.
● Boulder clay is also known as glacial till and is a mixture of fine clays, sands and
boulders deposited by glaciers in the last Ice Age.
● The chalk band that surrounds the boulder clay has created a headland at
Flamborough Head.
● Erosion along fault lines and bedding planes has created features such as cliffs,
arches and stacks.

Longshore drift:

- The beaches at Holderness are its main problem. The boulder clay erodes to
produce mainly clay particles, which are fine and easily transported out to sea in
suspension, rather than accumulating on-shore as beach sand.
- There are beaches, they are narrow and they offer little friction to absorb wave
energy.
- The tides flow southwards, transporting sand south by longshore drift and leaving the
cliffs at Holderness poorly protected by wave attack.

BANGLADESH CASE STUDY:

- Bangladesh is the most densely populated area, half the country lives 10 metres
above sea level.
- The rivers and the coast flood regularly and himalayan snow which melts down
contributes to the sea level rises.
- The monsoon season is between march and may violent thunderstorms produce
strong southerly

Bangladesh's estuarine islands have sunk by 1.5 metres in the last 50 years and it is due to
the clearance and Dinges of 50 large islands.
 - The island is clearing its forests in order to grow more crops and grow rice to feed the
country's large population.
- Large earth embankments were built around the island to protect against storm
surges
- Mangroves maintain coastines against erosion and provide protection and shelter in
extreme weather.
- Rising sea levels, erosion, farms are being built for shrimp

Storm surges are changes in sea level caused by intense low-pressure systems -
depressions and tropical cyclones - and high wind speeds.

Case Study: Cyclone Sidr

Cyclone Sidr swept in the Bay of Bengal on 15th November 2007 - bringing with it a storm
surge which reached up to 6m high in places. The cyclone also brought heavy wind of 223
km/hr and heavy rain. It was a category 4 storm.

Impacts of cyclone Sidr:

The storm surges breached many coastal and river embankments, causing severe flooding
in low lying areas.
- 4234 dead and missing people
- 55282 injured
- 703 km of damaged electricity lines
- The cost of damage was 29.6 million dollars

Case Study: Kiribati

In 2015 Anote Tong purchased a 20 km piece of land in one of the Fijiian Islands -200km
from Kiribati.
- The inhabitants now have moved somewhere else as the president has bought land
elsewhere.
- Kiribati consists of 33 widely spaced islands, which stretch across the Pacific ocean.
The islands are very low lying- only 1 m above sea level.
- Many believe that the island can be wiped out in 50 years.
- In places the sea level rises by 1.2cm each year which is 4 times the global average.

Why are sea levels rising?

- Global warming is causing sea levels to rise. Average temperatures rose by 0.85
degree celsius from 1880 to 2012. During a similar time period, 1870 to 2010,
average sea levels rose by 21cm.
- Sea levels are rising because the polar ice sheets as well as glaciers worldwide are
melting because of thermal expansion (sea water expands as it warms).

The Kiribati government has bought land in Fiji to grow crops and possibly even serve as
somewhere to evacuate the country's entire population

Longshore drift in Benin, West Africa

Strong prevailing south-westerly winds and large waves create significant and sustained
longshore drift in West Africa. As a result, a huge amount of sand is transported along the
coast - from Ghana eastwards to Togo and Benin. However, despite that, not enough sand
is deposited to replace that transported by longshore drift, so Benin's coastline is still being
eroded at a rapid rate.
Marine transport
There are four main ways in which coastal sediment is transported:

◆ Traction - relatively large and heavy rocks are roved along the seabed.
◆ Saltation - smaller and lighter rocks 'bounce' along the seabed.
◆ Lighter sediment is carried in suspension.
◆Dissolved sediment is carried in solution

Tides and currents:

The angle in which the waves approach the coastline is a major factor in coastal sediment
transport, however tides and currents affect the process of longshore drift.

Tides are changes in the water levels of sea and oceans caused by the gravitational pull of
the moon.

The relative difference between high and low tides is called the tidal range. A high tidal
range creates powerful tidal currents. Tidal currents can become particularly strong and fast
in estuaries.

Sediment cells:
A sediment cell operates as a closed system, with virtually no inputs or outputs of sediment
from the cell. This system contains inputs, transfers and outputs.

Larger sediment is not transferred between cells, but finer sediment in suspension out at
sea (e.g some of the fine boulder clay eroded from Holderness) can be transferred.

The sediment budget is the amount of sediment available within a sediment cell. Within each
cell depositional features buildup which are in line or in equilibrium

If sediment budget falls, waves continue to transport sediment and erosion may therefore
increase in some areas, because the sea has surplus energy.

When the the sediment budget falls and increases the opposite is done to counteract change
which is known as dynamic equilibrium

INPUTS(FOR SEDIMENT CELLS)

- Cliff erosion- wave cut notch
- Onshore currents
- Wind
- Marine organism
 - River transportation
- Weathering

Transfers:
Places where sediment is moving alongshore through longshore drift and offshore currents.
(Drift-aligned) beaches and parts of dunes and salt marshes perform this function.

Some examples of sediment transfers are:

• Longshore drift
• Swash
•Backwash
• Tidal currents
• Sea/ocean currents
• Wind (onshore, offshore or along shore)

The Jurassic coast

The Jurassic Coast is a stunning coastal area in South Devon and East Dorset, UK. In
2001, it became the first coast in the UK to receive UNESCO World Heritage status. Named
after the geological period when its rocks were formed, this stretch of coast offers a unique
“geological walk-through time.” It showcases the entire Jurassic period and is rich in fossils.

Stair Hole, located on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth Cove, showcases the Lulworth
Crumple. This geological feature is a well-known example of limestone folding. The cliffs
at Stair Hole reveal thin beds of Purbeck limestone and shale, which were folded due to
tectonic movements approximately thirty million years ago.