Nuffield Free-Standing Mathematics Activities Coastal erosion B Integrating area
Disappearing coasts ‘Understanding how our coasts are eroded is vital in a future of climate change and sea level rise’ – Catherine Poulton coastal sedimentologist, British Geological Survey © East Riding Council
How can we estimate how much land will be lost over a period of time? There is a variable rate of land erosion at different points on the coastline. How can we estimate how much land will be lost over a period of time? 3
To compare and compute a variety of methods for approximating areas/integrals use the Shodor Interactivate: InteGreat! www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/Integrate/ 4
Explore more at www.coastalexplorer.eastriding.gov.uk www.hull.ac.uk/erosion www.bgs.ac.uk/ News item on Holbeck Hall Hotel collapse http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7438211.stm 5
Reflect on your work What features of the coastline indicate whether a quadratic or a cubic function is likely to give the better fit? What methods could you use to find models? How would you decide which was the best model? Describe how integration can be used to estimate land loss due to coastal erosion.