Physical fieldwork

What is the hypothesis?

coastal management strategies at Walton-on-the-Naze are effective at protecting the coast

Where is Walton-on-the-Naze located?

south east of England - north east from London and on coastline in east Essex

Why was it a good location?

close to our school so collect data all in one day
beach had easy access so could get their safely + quickly
away from unstable cliffs meanign safe to collect data
has soft rock that erodes quick so lots of hard engineering to protect town + area of unprotected beach so can compare two areas to see if effective

What were the risks?

extreme weather - wore appropriate clothing such as waterproof jacket incase it rains
slips - walked carefully across beach + appropriate footwear + first aid kit with group
cliff collapse - walked away from cliffs
getting lost - panic cards + uses map app on phone to identify our location

What was data collection method 1?

bi-polar survey - allowed us to score diffrent elements of the strategies so we were able to work out total score of effectiveness
make judgement of multiple techniques to help draw a conclusion
could gather numerical data

What was data collection method 2?

measuring height of groynes - collect lots of data in limited amount of time + no expensive equipment
systematic sampling means no bias + equal intervals which increases accuracy
primary data so we know is accurate as collected data ourselves + relevant to our aim

What was data collection method 3?

annotated photos - photos of protected and unprotected coastline so can make direct comparisions and draw conclusions on effectivenness

What can you infer from table of measurement of groynes?

mean results showed south side of groynes scored consistentaly measured lower than north meaning sediment has been trapped by groynes meaning groynes effective at stopping longshore drift

How could you present the data?

located bar graph - we plotted our mean drop for each side of 3 groynes + were located around a map of study area

Why did we use this data presentation?

good visual representation of data plotted shwoing the location allowing us to identify reasons for coastal mangement
easily compare north + south side to see if groynes were effective at trapping sediment

What are the problems of this method?

easy to misinterpret as largest bar shwos most space between sediemnt and top of groyne not amount of sediment

Evaluation - What are the problem with groynes?

small sample size - only visted 3 out of 47 so may not be fully representative of area
human error - misread the tape measure so may not be accurate and misrepresent data

Evaluation - What are the improvements of groynes?

measure more than 3 groynes and at shorter intervals which would improve accuracy of conclusion
work together to check readings to check readings - ensuring accurate data

Evaluation - What are the problems of photos?

only annotated 3 photos close to eachother and at same time so conclusions may not be fully valid

Evaluation - What are the problems of photos?

annotated more photos from more points along coast - draw more observations + use photos from diffrent timw to make direct comparasion to visibly see impact

What conclusion can be drawn by height of groyne measurements?

results prove groynes are effective at intercepting longshore drift and trapping sediment in order to built up beach - see all 3 groynes more sediment was on south side which resulted in wider sandy beaches which better absorb wave energy to protect cliffs behind the beach

What conclusions can be drawn by annotated photographs?

annotated photo show range of coastal management stratergies are effective at protecting coast - true as annoatations of unprotected coast show evidence of erosion like wave cut platform - annotations of protected coast show lack of erosion