Hard Engineering Strategies on the Holderness Coast: An Analysis of Erosion and Management, Lecture notes of Engineering

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The Holderness Coast

Learning Objective:

- Investigate hard engineering strategies

along the Holderness Coast

Learning Outcomes:

• Explain why stretches of the coastline are

eroded

• Analyse the management strategies

used along the Holderness coastline

• Judge the success of the management

• The Holderness coastline runs from Flamborough

Head to Spurn Point on the east coast of England.

• It is 61 km in length, and is the fastest-eroding coastline in

Europe.

• On parts of the Holderness Coast about 1.8m of land is lost

each year. In Great Cowden , it is over 10m each year.

• It is estimated that the coastline has retreated by over 400

metres during the last 2000 years. In the last 1000 years, 30

coastal villages have been swept into the sea.

• Over 11km of this coastline is managed using hard

engineering. This is because there are towns and villages

where people live, important infrastructure like the B

road and the gas terminal at Easington supplies 25% of

the UK’s gas and is right on the edge of the cliff.

Hornsea :

The small town of Hornsea is between the towns of Bridlington and Withernsea. It is a high-density urban area with many tourist attractions. The economy is based largely on tourism. Hornsea has been protected by building wooden groynes and a concrete sea wall. These defences were first built in the early 1900s and they have been well-maintained over the years, so the location of the coastline here has changed very little over time. Recently, a rock revetment has been built to the south of Hornsea. This helps protect the caravan park.

Withernsea:

The town of Withernsea is about 16 kilometres north of Spurn Point. It is where the B1242 meets the A1033. The beach is made up of sand and shingle and it is protected by a series of wooden groynes. The cliffs are protected by a concrete sea wall , rock revetments and rock armour. The central section of the Withernsea seafront is protected by the concrete seawall , rock armour and a rock groyne. At the north and south ends, there are concrete revetments and a small amount of rock armour. There is a lot of rock armour to the south of the town. Link to Withernsea defences

To what extent can the coastal

management strategies on the Holderness

coast be considered a success? (6 marks)