The Coastal Zone- Holderness

Location: Holderness, East Yorkshire.

Why was management needed?:

- Cliffs made of soft boulder clay and are easily eroded.

- Collapsed cliffs are washed away causing retreat.

- About 1.8m lost every year, due to erosion and longshore drift.

- Bridlington protected by a 4.7km sea wall and wooden groynes.

- Hornsea village protected by sea wall, wooden groynes and rock armour.

- At Withernsea, groynes are used to create wider beaches. Rock armour was placed in front of the sea wall after it was damaged in 1992.

- Two rock groynes at Mappleton were built in 1991, costing £2 million, protecting the village and a coastal road.

- The eastern side of Spurn Head and the Humber Estuary are protected by groynes and rock armour.

All defences help protect from erosion and flooding!

- Groynes protect local areas, but starve beaches futher down the coast of sediment (Cowden farm, south of Mappleton, risks falling into the sea).

- Eroded material is normally transported south to the Humber Estuary and Lincolnshire coast, reducing the eroded material increases flood risk at the Humber Estuary, as there is less material to slow floodwater down.

- Less new material is deposited along the Lincolnshire coast, increasing coastal retreat.

- Spurn Head at risk of being eroded away, due to less sediment being deposited.

- Bays form between protected areas, making the protected areas headlands, which erode more heavily. This increases the cost of maintaining defences in protected areas.