Environmental Change and Management & Biophysical Processes Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key topics in Environmental Change and Management (ECAM), coastal biophysical processes, engineering strategies, and case studies.

Source Function

The environment's provision of natural resources, such as air, water, minerals, forests, and fish.

Sink Function

The environment's ability to absorb, break down, and recycle waste and pollution, such as trees absorbing $\text{CO}_2$ from car emissions.

Service Function

The environment's provision of balance and stability to ecosystems, including the atmosphere, biodiversity, ecological integrity, and climate.

Spiritual Function

The cultural, recreational, or psychological value of the environment for people, such as Aboriginal Dreaming connection to land or admiring a sunset.

Renewable Resources

Natural resources that are replenished by nature in a short time, such as timber and fish stocks.

Non-renewable Resources

Resources that cannot be replenished within a human lifetime, such as coal, oil, and minerals.

Continuous Resources

Perpetual natural resources that are never in danger of running out, such as solar, wind, and tides.

Biodiversity

The variety of living organisms (animals, plants, microorganisms) in an environment.

Biodiversity Loss

Decline in number, genetic variability and variety of species/communities in an area.

5 drivers of human induced biodiversity loss

Habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, overexploitation of resources, pollution, climate change

Human-centred (Anthropocentric) Worldview

The worldview that humans are apart from nature and can manage it to meet needs and wants, leading to a utilisation or exploitation approach to management.

Stewardship Worldview

The worldview that humans have an ethical responsibility to be caring managers of the Earth, leading to a conservation approach to management.

Earth-centred (Ecocentric) Worldview

The worldview that humans are part of and totally dependent on nature, which exists for all species, leading to a preservation approach to management.

Management Approach: Preservation

Complete protection, people denied access, resources not used

Management Approach: Conservation

limited/sustainable use, no significant environmental impact

Management Approach: Utilisation

resources used, natural environments replaced by built ones

Management Approach: Exploitation

resources overused, flora/fauna devastated

Firestick Farming

Planned, low-intensity, rotational mosaic burning used by Aboriginal Australians for tens of thousands of years to manage flora and fauna.

Sustainability

the ongoing ability of the environment to support the lives of all living things into the future.

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Three pillars of Sustainable Development

economic development, social progress and environment/climate

Paris Agreement

A $2015$ climate treaty aiming to keep global temperature rise well below $2^\times\text{C}$ above pre-industrial levels, pursuing efforts to limit it to $1.5^\times\text{C}$.

Externality

An unintentional spillover effect (cost or benefit) of an economic transaction on a third party not directly involved.

Tragedy of the Commons

An economic theory explaining why individuals overuse and deplete shared or unowned resources due to personal self-interest.

Circular Economy

An economic model where products and materials are designed to be reused, repaired, or returned to the manufacturer rather than thrown away.

carbon tax

a tax on carbon emissions, designed to discourage fossil fuel use

coastal environment

the zone where land meets sea

coastal management

strategies to manage the risks that dynamic processes create for coastal communities and ecosystems.

Factors influencing wave size/energy

wind speed, wind duration, and fetch

Fetch

The distance of open water over which wind blows to generate wave energy.

Swash

The forward movement of water up the beach after a wave breaks.

Backwash

The return flow of water back down the beach under gravity.

Constructive Waves

Low frequency, long wavelength waves with strong swash and weak backwash that build up beaches by depositing material.

Destructive Waves

High frequency, short wavelength waves with weak swash and strong backwash that erode beaches by removing material.

Erosion

the wearing away and removal of rock/land by the sea

Transportation

the movement of eroded material by the sea

Deposition

the dropping of material carried by the sea, occurring when wave energy decreases

Hydraulic Action

A process of coastal erosion caused by the sheer force and power of waves crashing against rock, compressing air in cracks.

Abrasion

A process of coastal erosion where rock fragments and sand carried by waves grind against and wear down cliffs like sandpaper.

Attrition

A process of coastal erosion where rock fragments and pebbles collide with each other in the water, breaking down into smaller and rounder pieces.

Solution (Erosion)

A process of coastal erosion where acids present in seawater dissolve certain rock types, such as limestone and chalk.

Traction

A process of coastal transportation where large pebbles and boulders are rolled along the seabed.

Saltation

A process of coastal transportation where smaller pebbles and large sand grains are bounced along the seabed.

Suspension

A process of coastal transportation where small particles, such as silt and clay, are carried within the water column.

Solution (Transportation)

A process of coastal transportation where dissolved minerals are carried in seawater with no visible load.

Longshore Drift

The zig-zag movement of sediment along a coastline caused by waves approaching at an angle and washing back perpendicular to the shore under gravity.

Wave Refraction

The bending of waves around headlands due to seabed shape, concentrating wave energy on headlands and dispersing it in bays.

Landforms caused by erosion

Headlands and bays, cliffs, wave-cut notch/platform, caves, arches, stacks, stumps and blowhole.

Landforms caused by deposition

beaches, sand dunes, spit, tombolo, bars and barriers, and lagoon.

Hard Engineering

Coastal management involving artificial structures built to control natural coastal processes, such as sea walls, rock armour, gabions, and groynes.

Soft Engineering

Coastal management strategies that work with natural processes rather than against them, such as beach nourishment and dune regeneration.

Sea Wall

A solid wall built to reflect wave energy back to sea, providing protection but creating strong backwash that can increase erosion at its base.

Groynes

Wooden or rock barriers built perpendicular to the shore that trap sand moved by longshore drift, building up the beach while starving downdrift beaches.

Beach Nourishment

A soft engineering method where sand or shingle is added to a beach from an external source to build it up.

Reprofiling

A soft engineering technique of reshaping the existing beach profile using material already present on the beach.

Cause of Change- Cronulla

European Settlement (grazing), sand mining, 1974 storm

short term consequences - cronulla

Loss of sand/beach access, damaged infrastructure (sea walls, playgrounds), safety closures

Long-term consequences- cronulla

Permanent loss of dune landscape/height, ongoing reliance on engineered defences, reduced natural resilience of the coast

Management- cronulla

Hard engineering (seabee sea wall at North Cronulla) + soft engineering (beach replenishment, dune revegetation/stabilisation via the Soil Conservation Service)