Coasts

Waves
What are waves?
 Waves are water movements that rise and fall on the water surface
 It is caused by wind energy that is transferred from the wind to the water as the wind blows
over the surface of the ocean

Wave energy
Wind speed
 It is how fast the wind blows over the water surface
 Greater speed  Greater wind energy  Larger waves

Fetch
 Distance of the ocean in which the wind blows
 Longer fetch  Larger waves

Duration of wind
 Length of time in which the wind blows
 Longer the wind blows  Larger waves

Wave movement
 Waves that collapses and breaks onto the beach as a forward movement are called swash
 Waves that is pulled back into the sea by gravity are called backwash

Types of waves
Destructive waves
 Strong waves
 Has a weak swash
 Has a powerful backwash
 This scours the beach, pulling the sand and shingle down the beach, eroding the beach
 Thus the beach is steep
Constructive waves
 Gentle waves
 Has a powerful swash
 Has a weak backwash
 This pushes materials up the beach, building it
 Thus the beach is gentle

Tides
 Tides are daily alternating rising and falling of the sea level seen along coasts
 They are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun
 There are 2 high and low tides within 24 hours

Currents
 They are large scale and persistent movement of water in the ocean driven mainly by prevailing
winds
 E.G. Long shore current, which moves parallel to the coast

Coastal erosion
Types of coastal erosion
Hydraulic action
 Water surges into joint and compresses the air inside
 When the water retreats, pressure is released and the air expands
 The repeated expansion and compression of the air causes the cracks to widen and weaken,
thus breaking the rocks apart

Corrosion
 Waves carry sediments and rock fragments such has cobble, pebbles and gravel
 When the waves crash into the coast, they act like chiseling tool, cutting and breaking rocks

Attrition
 Materials are carried in the waves constantly collide with one another
 This causes rocks to break into smaller pieces and are swept onto the shore as sand

Solution
  Only soluble materials in coastal rocks are dissolved and removed by the sea water

What affects coastal erosion?

Types of waves
 Destructive waves would cause more materials to be erode, compared to constructive waves

Position of coast
 There is less coastal erosion when the rocks are parallel to the coastline
 There is more coastal erosion when the rock are perpendicular to the coastline

Rock structure
 From most susceptible to coastal erosion to least: Sea ward dipping rocks, Land ward dipping
rocks, Horizontally bedded cliffs, Vertically bedded cliffs
 Seaward dipping rocks are most easily eroded, because its line of weakness faces the sea
 Hence it encourages erosion
 Also the slabs of eroded rocks are more susceptible to collapse towards the sea, leading to
increased rate of erosion

Coastal transportation
 Wave direction arrives at the shore at a slight angle
 The swash moves the load up at a slight angle, due to the wave direction
 The backwash carries the load back to the sea at a right angle to the coast due to gravity
 This zigzag movement transports the materials on the beach.
 It is also called beach drifting
 The rock materials become smaller and more sorted as they move further away from the origin
 Beach drifting + Long shore current = Long shore drift
 Only wind direction affects coastal transportation

Coastal landforms
Headlands and bays
 They are formed due to alternating bands of resistant and less resistant rocks, causing different
erosion
 Less resistant rocks would erode faster , forming bays
 And protruding areas of resistant rocks would form headlands
 After a long time, the coastline would be straight again
  As, the waves would concentrate their energy at the headlands
 Causing deposition on the bays
 Eventually straightening the coastline

Sea caves, cliffs and wave cut platforms

 Hollow spaces in rocks are attacked by destructive waves, forming a notch
 Prolonged erosion and undercutting enlarges the notch, forming a sea cave
 Further erosion of the cave causes the roof to collapse due to the weak support, forming a sea
cliff
 The sea cliff would retreat landwards and form a gentle sloping land, forming a wave-cut
platform

Arches, stacks and stumps

 Erosion at headlands would create a sea cave along line of weakness.
 After some time, the erosion would have cut through to the other side, forming an arch
 Active undercutting of the sides of the arch would make it unstable, and it would eventually
collapse and form an isolated piece of rock, forming a stack
 The stack would erode further and weather down, forming a stump

Beaches
 They are developed in sheltered coasts, between two headlands
 Sediments carried by the waves are deposited, forming a beach
 The gradient of the beach depends on the sediments deposited
 Large sediments causes a steep beach, as the backwash cannot sweep them back
 Small sediment causes a gentle beach, as the backwash is able to sweep materials away easily

Spits
 Long shore drift transports eroded materials parallel to the coast
 When the LSD encounters shallow or sheltered waters, deposition occurs
 After continuous deposition, they sediment rise above the water, forming an extension of the
land, a spit
 The spit would continue to grow in length
 For a spit to be formed, there must be fresh input of material brought by LSD, and the rate of
deposition must be more than the rate of erosion

Tombolos
 It is a spit the extends from the mainland to an island, forming a tombolo
Bars
 It is a spit that extends across the mouth of a bay and cuts the bay off from the open sea,
forming a bar
 The place between the bar and the coast is called a lagoon

Coastal management
Hard engineering
Sea walls
 Seawalls are built along the coast
 They absorb the energy of the waves before they can erode away loose materials
 It can be made of concrete, rocks or wood
 They can be found along the coasts of Penang, Malacca and Singapore
 However, the energy of the waves would be redirected downwards, to the base of the seawall,
causing a strong backwash
 This backwash would wear away the base of the seawall, causing it to weaken and eventually
collapse, if not carefully maintained
 They are also costly to build and maintain, as there constant repairs have to be carried out

Breakwaters
 Breakwaters are built off the coast but parallel to it.
 They are usually made of granite
 They protect the coast by reducing the force of the high energy waves before they reach the
shore
 They are used along the beaches at East Coast Park, and Siloso beach at Sentosa
 However, they are unable to provide complete protection as they still leave areas of the coast
unprotected
 They are also expensive

Groynes
 Groynes are a low wall built at right angles to the shore to prevent Long shore drift
 These structures absorb or reduce the wave’s energy, causing materials to be deposited on the
side of the gryone face the LSD.
 However, on the other side of the gryone, there are no materials deposited, thus the get eroded
 Hence the beach further down the coast may be eroded away

Gabions
  Gabions are wire cages filled with crushed rocks to form a wall to protect the coast against
erosion by reducing the energy of the wave
 However, they are easily destroyed by powerful waves during storms and the wires rust easily
 They also ruin the natural beauty of the coastline

Soft engineering
Beach nourishment
 This method requires adding large amount of sand to the beach to replace the ones eroded
away
 This leads to the improvement of the beach quality and storm protection
 However, this method is expensive to transport large quantities of sand to fill up the beach, as
sand is continually getting eroded away
 Coral reefs also get destroyed as the extra sand gets washed out to sea and covers the corals,
depriving them of the light which they need to survive

Planting of mangroves
 Mangroves help to reduce coastal erosion, as their prop root helps to trap sediments and
prevent them from getting washed away
 However, this requires the cooperation of the local people, as they be mindful of not letting
their animals eat the young mangroves, as they are fragile
 Also, the buildup of sediment would cause the coast to be shallower, affecting countries like
Singapore, which depends on maritime trade

Stabilizing dunes
 Coastal dunes are ridges of sand piled by the wind on the coast
 They act as barriers along the coast, protecting the property inland, and help prevent flooding
from waves
 However, they are easily eroded by human activity near the coast, thus access points to the
beach must be controlled

Encourage growth of coral reefs

 Coral reefs protects the beach from coastal erosion by reducing the speed of the waves
approaching the coasts
 However, these reefs are being destroyed by land reclamation and water pollution
 But, man-made reefs can be constructed by using environmentally friendly and durable
materials such as steel or concrete on the sea-floor.