Coastal Retreat Geography
Coastal retreat refers to the gradual or sudden movement of the coastline inland due to erosion, sea level rise, or other natural processes. This geographical phenomenon can result in the loss of land, property, and infrastructure, impacting both human and natural environments. Coastal retreat is a significant concern in the field of geography due to its implications for coastal management and environmental planning.
4 Key excerpts on "Coastal Retreat Geography"
eBook - ePubThe Geography of Tourism and Recreation
Environment, Place and Space
- C. Michael Hall, Stephen J. Page(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Given the value and significance attached to the beach and coast, observed by Tunstall and Penning-Rowsell (1998), it is evident that the coast is a major recreational environment. The association with resorts and the geographer’s preoccupation with resort models and development should arguably be directed to a fuller understanding of the impact of human beings on the coastal environment, particularly interference with coastal processes and the resulting measures needed to redress the consequences for the coastal environment. There is no doubt that the coastal environment is facing a wide range of environmental pressures, not least of which is the growing intensity of use. This, combined with environmental impacts from human activity, poses many severe planning problems for one simple reason: the scale and rate of change associated with coastal processes (e.g. erosion) may be extremely rapid. This requires costly remedial action, particularly in the case of beach nourishment and in coastal protection schemes where the natural environment is directly altered by tourist and recreational development. Given the potential impacts of tourism on the coastal environment, it is therefore not surprising that government agencies have been trying to encourage more sustainable forms of coastal development in Asia and the Pacific...
- Gerd Masselink, Michael Hughes, Jasper Knight(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...southeast coast of Australia). In addition, wide shelves lead to greater reduction in wave height by frictional dissipation and are also responsible for amplification of tides. Regionally, coastline configuration can be important by controlling wave processes such as reduced wave energy levels in the lee of offshore islands and within coastal embayments. Lithology is a significant factor on the recession rate and cliff profile development along eroding rocky coasts. Unconsolidated sediments are essential for coastal evolution because they build into landforms such as beaches. The nature and abundance of the sediment is examined in Chapter 5. Sediment availability depends on the location and volume of sediment sources, and transport processes between the sources and the location where sediments are deposited. Sediments may have a marine, fluvial/deltaic, terrestrial or biological origin, and so they may vary in their physical, chemical and particle size properties from place to place. Muddy sediments are most common in humid temperate or tropical climates, where they result in deltas and infilling of estuaries. Sandy sediments are characteristic of the coast and inner continental shelves in the lower midlatitudes. Gravel deposits are more common in paraglacial areas where the coastal hinterland has been glaciated (see Chapter 11). External forcing refers to the external processes that provide the energy to drive coastal evolution. Important aspects are the frequency, magnitude and character of the energy sources, which are atmospheric (coastal winds and climate), terrestrial (river outflow) and marine (waves, tides and currents). Of these, marine sources are most important (discussed in Chapters 3 and 4), but the marine energy regime is closely dependent on atmospheric circulation and therefore long-term changes in global climate regime. Changes in environmental conditions drive coastal evolution over a range of time scales (Figure 1.3)...
eBook - ePubThe Morphology of Tourism
Planning for Impact in Tourist Destinations
- Philip Feifan Xie, Kai Gu(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...3 Morphological changes and the evolution of coastal resorts Introduction The juxtaposition of land and water has long been identified as a very important factor in attracting tourists to coasts, lakes, and rivers (Andriotis 2006, Valls et al. 2017). Seaside resorts are acknowledged for their natural beauty and rich biodiversity; at the same time, they are highly vulnerable ecosystems (Kitolelei and Sato 2016). The exponential growth in coastal tourism is associated with higher disposable incomes from tourists, better modes of transportation, and more available time for leisure activities. Coastal resorts evolve from their natural state to an increasingly urbanized state through tourism-induced development. In addition to promising tourists access to the beach, these destinations have established an integrated resort model accommodating recreational, retail, and entertainment facilities. Coastal tourism brings foreign exchange to the government, and incurs social, environmental, and political changes. The development, in turn, has triggered a rising coastal property market as resorts proliferate and expand along the coastlines. Tourism has the potential to cause immense ecological disturbances, from the construction stage through to its daily operations in coastal systems (Bidesi et al. 2011). Very often, rapid construction of hotels and secondary housing cooperatives as a result of income expectations leads to the degradation of fertile land, creating aesthetic pollution (Burak et al. 2004). The impacts of tourism have also been empirically linked to marine pollution, habitat degradation, and a loss of place identity (Movono et al. 2017). At its height, coastal tourism leads to socioeconomic polarization, until overdevelopment, high competition, and low occupancy rates cause overall economic decline...
eBook - ePubThe Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Southern Britain AD 450-650
Beneath the Tribal Hidage
- Sue Harrington, Martin Welch, Martin Welch(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Oxbow Books(Publisher)
...4. Travelling and Using the Land- and Sea-Scapes Coastal erosion and tide patterns In the context of the environmental circumstances of the period AD 450–700, it is important to delineate the potentialities of coastal routeways as they impacted on Early Anglo-Saxon site location and landscape syntax. The coastline of southern England as it exists today was probably broadly in place 3000 years ago (c. 1000 BC) with localised variations thereafter caused by erosion and deposition related to tide and weather patterns. Where different geological formations form the coast, they erode at different rates. Modern estimates suggest that, for the study region’s south coast, the erosion rate will have varied between 28 metres and 108 metres per hundred years. Thus, for example, between Selsey Bill and the mouth of the Cuckmere in East Sussex, the coastline in AD 400 may have been over 1700 metres further out (Goudie and Brunsden 1994, 48, fig. 33). The coast of the Isle of Thanet and north Kent has lost land to a similar extent with estimates of up to 4.8 kilometres for the same period (Brookes 2007, 44). Between Folkestone and Dungeness in southeast Kent, however, the loss seems to have been far less, estimated at approximately 400 metres. There are two consistent factors in coastal formation (Cresswell 1959): tide rotation and wave fetch. Wave fetch refers to the distance a wave travels before it hits the shoreline and, as Figure 12 (derived from Cresswell 1959, 21) shows, the greatest impact is of the Atlantic Ocean onto the west coast of the British Isles. Correspondingly, the shortest fetches occur across the Irish Sea and along the English Channel. The North Sea is an area of medium fetch, with the break point between this and the short-fetch waves of the English Channel found around the North Foreland in Kent, indicating contrasting maritime conditions along each of these coasts...
