Coastal Management at Selsey

Coastal Management at Selsey

1. Introduction.

For this Coursework I will be studying the coastal management of East

Beach, Selsey, and also at Medmerry. The main issue that I will study

is 'How should the coastline be managed at East Beach, Selsey and at

Medmerry, near West Beach, Selsey.'

The methods that I used to collect information was varied, here is

what I did in my group:

First of all I measured the beach length, by using a measuring tape. I

measured the beach from the sea's edge to the top of the beach. Then,

I found out the angle of the slope of the beach, by making a

clinometer reading. To do this one person stood at the sea's edge and

the other stood at the top of the beach. Whilst holding the clinometer

at arm's length, we adjusted the clinometer so that the top was in

line with the other person's eye. You then pull the trigger and record

the angle given, then they swapped positions and repeated this

process. We then made Pantometer readings, which are readings of the

angle of the beach at every metre on the measuring tape. The measuring

tape that has measured the length of the beach, is then used so that

at every 1 metre along the tape the Pantometer is held straight and

from the protractor on the side, the angle can be read.

Photo of Equipment.

The wave length was then recorded so that we could see whether the

waves were constructive or destructive. Firstly we noted how many

waves passed a point on the beach, for 5 minutes. This number was then

divided by 5 to get the number that passed per minute. To see whether

there is Longshore Drift, we threw dog biscuits into the sea and

watched their movement. If it moves either left or right, it shows

LSD, but if it just moved in and out then there is no LSD. We carried

out this process 4 times, so that we were completely assured of

whether there is LSD.