EQ4 Coasts 20.5.19
EQ4: How can coastlines be managed to meet the needs of all players?
- Erosion, flooding, and sea level rise have consequences for people and their
property.
- A wide range of management strategies and engineering approaches can be used to
reduce risk, but these have advantages and disadvantages.
- Decision-making about coastal management can lead to conflict as well as winners
and losers.
Consequences of coastal recession on communities.
Costs of rapid social recession:
- Economic costs
o Loss of property in the form of homes, businesses and farmland.
o Easy to quantify
- Social costs
o Costs of relocation
o Loss of livelihoods / jobs → can be quantified.
o Impact on health → stress & worry → cannot be quantified.
- Environmental costs
o Loss of coastal ecosystems and habitats.
o Impossible to quantify financially, likely to be small.
Losses because of erosion tend to be very localised and costs are very specific to those
locations.
Specific economic value of land can be found in Hoddor & the revision book
Amenity value: is the value in cultural, human wellbeing and economic terms of an
attractive environment that people enjoy using.
Not only is there a physical cost in loss of land. There is also losses in terms of amenity value
and economic losses to businesses if coastlines become unattractive and depopulated.
Economic losses from erosion are localised and small because:
- Erosion happens slowly with a small number of properties affected over a long
period of time.
- Property that is at risk loses its value long before it is destroyed by erosion, because
potential buyers recognise it.
- Areas of high density population, especially in towns and villages, tend to be
protected by coastal defences.
However, for those communities affected the losses can be significant if, for instance, a
whole village is at risk. For residents this means:
- Falling property values → the date of eventual loss approaches.
- An inability to sell their property because of the possibility of loss by erosion is too
great.
- An inability to insure against the loss → coastal erosion is not covered.
- The loss of their major asset, and facing the costs of getting a new home.
EQ4: How can coastlines be managed to meet the needs of all players?
- Erosion, flooding, and sea level rise have consequences for people and their
property.
- A wide range of management strategies and engineering approaches can be used to
reduce risk, but these have advantages and disadvantages.
- Decision-making about coastal management can lead to conflict as well as winners
and losers.
Consequences of coastal recession on communities.
Costs of rapid social recession:
- Economic costs
o Loss of property in the form of homes, businesses and farmland.
o Easy to quantify
- Social costs
o Costs of relocation
o Loss of livelihoods / jobs → can be quantified.
o Impact on health → stress & worry → cannot be quantified.
- Environmental costs
o Loss of coastal ecosystems and habitats.
o Impossible to quantify financially, likely to be small.
Losses because of erosion tend to be very localised and costs are very specific to those
locations.
Specific economic value of land can be found in Hoddor & the revision book
Amenity value: is the value in cultural, human wellbeing and economic terms of an
attractive environment that people enjoy using.
Not only is there a physical cost in loss of land. There is also losses in terms of amenity value
and economic losses to businesses if coastlines become unattractive and depopulated.
Economic losses from erosion are localised and small because:
- Erosion happens slowly with a small number of properties affected over a long
period of time.
- Property that is at risk loses its value long before it is destroyed by erosion, because
potential buyers recognise it.
- Areas of high density population, especially in towns and villages, tend to be
protected by coastal defences.
However, for those communities affected the losses can be significant if, for instance, a
whole village is at risk. For residents this means:
- Falling property values → the date of eventual loss approaches.
- An inability to sell their property because of the possibility of loss by erosion is too
great.
- An inability to insure against the loss → coastal erosion is not covered.
- The loss of their major asset, and facing the costs of getting a new home.
