Causes Of Holderness Coast

The Holderness coast is located on the east coast of England and is part of the East Riding of Yorkshire; a lowland agricultural region of England that lies between the chalk hills of the Wolds and the North Sea. It stretches from Flamborough Head in the north to Spurn Head in the South. It is one of Europe’s fastest eroding coastlines. The average annual rate of erosion is around 2 metres per year but in some parts of the coast, it is up to 10 metres per year. These high rates are attributed to both human and geographical causes. The physical causes are more damaging because the coast is made up of soft boulder clay which experiences more rapid rates of erosion. The erosion of the cliffs and seabed result in huge amounts of sediment being

Coastline management is just one of the solutions put in place to repair human pressures put on coastal environments. Coastal defenses help to prevent coastal erosion and flooding by the sea. Management strategies can be both short term and long term, and both sustainable and unsustainable. The two types of cliff defenses are cliff base and cliff face. There are also two types of management, hard engineering and soft engineering. There were an array of coastal management strategies put into place to help the situation that encompassed Holderness coast. There are many conflicts that arise from the matter of coastal management. Most locals are opposed to coastal management because of the high coast and the fact that it is very time consuming as well as invasive, so there was a delay in starting management for Holderness, given that it is very tourism-centered. The towns of Mappleton, Hornsea, and Withernsea that are along Holderness coast are examples of attempts at management strategies. The statement that management strategies for coastlines are generally ineffective is somewhat true for the short term and mostly true for the long term in regard to Holderness

In more recent times human management has interfered with the sediment balance and natural flows. The strategies that were put into place in the towns of Mappleton, Hornsea, and Withernsea included both hard and soft engineering. Hard engineering is when a structure is used to protect the coastline and soft engineering is working with natural processes to protect the coastline. The hard engineering strategies that were employed in all three towns include sea walls, groynes and revetments. Seawalls are large scale walls designed to deflect wave energy. With the construction of a sea wall in Hornsea, the wall trapped sediment which led to guarantee of steep beaches. Another hard engineering strategy was the construction of groynes. Groynes slow down longshore drift and build up on the beach. Two rock groynes were built in Mappleton in 1991 which helped develop wide and steep sandy beaches. A revetment, which is a natural-looking way to protect the base of cliffs, was also built in Mappleton which helped halt erosion. Similar defenses were built at Withernsea, and rocks were also placed along a sea wall to guarantee further protection. This statement is still somewhat true even in regard to the short term effects because of how the defences have ‘backfired’ in a way and created new issues. These issues have created more of an issue for long term