The Holderness Coast (Local Coast Case Study)

Holderness Coast Context

• Eastern Yorkshire

• 61km long

• At the north (Flamborough) are landforms like stacks and receding arches

• At the south (Spurn Head) are landforms like spits

Differential Rate of Erosion

Different types of rocks erode at different speeds

Physical Factors Affecting Rate of Erosion

• Geology (discordant coastlines; chalk and boulder clay)

• Weather (due to winter storms, flooding and storm surges can occur)

• Waves (North Atlantic currents are going to the North Sea; destructive waves remove boulder clay and chalk)

Human Factors Affecting Rate of Erosion

• People (older, retired people; caravan parks)

• Hard engineering (advance the line; TGS; Great Cowden Hamlet)

• Global warming / climate change (sea levels rise; increase in number of storms; Spurn Head being impacted 

Landforms

• Chalk headlands and cliffs near Flamborough (north)

• Retreating clay cliffs of the Holderness Bay (middle)

• 6km spit at Spurn Point (south)

Flamborough Head

• Highly permeable 

• Hydraulic action 

• Hydraulic action, weathering and mass movement combined can form wave cut platforms

• Wave refraction causes notches, arches, caves, stacks and stumps

Holderness Cliffs

• Made from easily eroded boulder clay

• Retreating by 1.8m/y

• Rain causes land slides 

• Fine clay removed by longshore drift (carries half a million tones of sediment - suspension - per year)

• Winter storms threatening

Spurn Head

• Longshore drift 

• 6km long

• Growing 10cm/y

• Winter storms threatening

• Home to sand dunes and salt marshes

Conflicts on Management

• 30 villages has been lost since the Roman Era due to erosion

• Beliefs that the government and council should focus on coastline protection

• The management could harm nature and reduce biodiversity

• 1991 (EU), £2.1 million pounds to save / protect their villages

• Main strategies: do nothing approach and hold the line

Protection at Hornsea

• Popular holiday resort 

• Spent £5.2 million building / repairing groynes

• 1.9km of concrete seawalls and rock armour

Protection at Spurn Head

• Main strategy: do nothing 

• Narrow neck so is there any point protecting it? We can’t stop nature 

• Can no longer spend money to protect it (1995, they stopped trying to protect it at all)

Impacts of Coastal Management at Hornsea

Groynes are relatively low cost	Terminal groyne syndrome can occur
Groynes are visually acceptable	Groynes require continual maintenance
The development of low-lying land is now possible and the groynes have ensured a wide, sandy beach which attracts thousands of tourists	There is little material to the south of the defences, meaning even neap tides (lower tidal range) can reach the base of the cliffs

Impacts of Coastal Management at Spurn Head

Do nothing has saved the growing annual costs of protection	Community of coastguards and their families may have to move somewhere else
Huge cost benefit as there were no major settlements on the spit	Over washing can damage the salt marsh environments located behind the spit
Not all environmental groups were against the spit becoming detached into an island	There may be a loss of a ‘heritage coast’ site and an important bird habitat