Coasts – Human Activities discusses why it is important for humans to protect coastlines. There are two main reasons: 1) To protect homes and businesses from the sea by building sea walls and other barriers, though these require maintenance and are expensive. Only areas with many people and properties will be protected. 2) To maintain tourist beaches by using groynes and breakwaters to trap sediment and prevent erosion, though these methods can increase erosion problems down the coast for neighboring areas. Case studies on Barton on Sea and Scarborough show the large sums of money spent on coastal protection and the mixed results in terms of success.

1. Coasts – Human Activities Aim: To find out why it is so important for humans to protect the coastline.

2. Popular UK Coastal Destinations Task A) Brainstorm the names of ten popular coastal destinations in the UK.

3. Look at the following pictures of popular coastal destinations in the UK. What do you notice?

4. Brighton Groynes Longshore Drift in action

6. Blackpool Sea walls built to stop sea advancing

7. Scarborough

8. Llandudno Concrete groyne Sea wall built to Stop town from flooding

10. To keep the sea out ….. Build a sea wall to deflect the power of the waves away from the seafront. However - Lots of maintenance needed and they are expensive to build. The Catch - Councils will only pay for them if there are many people and much property to defend.

11. Picture of sea wall

12. Area not protected and deemed unworthy of saving.

14. Breakwater

16. The neighbours from hell - Bournemouth

17. The Victims Barton on Sea – Just down the coast Click on picture for short video about Barton on Sea