1. Localised title- to what extent do the coastal management approaches at Porlock and Minehead

2. Contents

3. My Aims My aims for this investigation are to determine; 1) what coastal management strategies are used in Minehead and Porlock Bay? 2) What is the coast used for at Minehead and Porlock? 3) what impact does the coastal management at Minehead and Porlock have on people? 4) Which of the two places is most drastically affected by the coastal management strategies put in place.

4. The questions. These sub-questions were chosen to break up the investigation title, and to localise the aims- explaining how these approaches affect people directly or indirectly through primary and secondary affects of the defences, or lack of them, and the flooding thereafter.

5. Survey areas. The areas of investigative study are Minehead town and Porlock Bay, in West Somerset:

6. Somerset in Britain Also shows the location of Grimsby, where we travelled from to Somerset, a 5 hour bus ride. Figure 1

7. Minehead and Porlock within Somerset. Figure 2

8. Minehead Questionnaires carried out here. Rock groynes here Recurved sea wall, rock armour and revetments along here Figure 3

9. Porlock Dilapidated wooden groynes can be found along here. Questionnaires carried out here. A natural shingle ridge stretches along the coastline here. A short way up the coast from here is a Salt Marsh, where the sea has infiltrated the shingle ridge, and farmers have lost land. Figure 4

10. Methodology Our investigation entails surveys in two different places- Minehead and Porlock Bay. My sampling strategies were 1. Questionnaires 2. Bi Polar surveys 3. Epitome words & 4. Pictures/ observations

11. TechniquePurposeMethod(HOW) Ideal Sampling Strategy LimitationsSolutions Question- naire To gather peoples opinions and views, to then assess whether they are drastically affected or not. Question sheets, etc. (see appendix) Stratified- (ideal) No wide range of opinions. Try to gather from a wider audience Bipolar Rate the characteristics of the sea defences/ strategies that affect people, e.g. aesthetics, cost etc. Assessments are made of the scores for each of the characteristics, for each defence and an average for each is devised, to show the average use(pros+cons) of each defence. Systematic No wide range of scores (normally - 3 to 3) Ask as many people as possible to get more accurate results Epitome words Assessing usefulness, (of a defence or strategy) Think about the characteristics of the area and find a word to match those characteristics. Stratified Only one word- may not fully describe important characteris tics. Instruct participants to give 2-3 epitome words to fully describe the characteristics of the defence/strategy they are rating. Pictures & observatio ns To accurately observe the landscape of the coastline and show clearly the layout of coastal defences. Annotations can also be added to clearly emphasise key characteristics of each defence. Take a photograph of a significant view N/ADon’t get a wide view of the environme nt the picture was taken in. Could use panoramic photography to show a 360˚ view. Figure 5

12. Questionnaire When the questionnaires were asked of people in the two locations, peoples answers to the multiple choice question “what is the affect of coastal management on you?” were tallied, averaged and put into graphs. Their results are as follows:

13. Figure 6

15. Justification These graphs clearly show a split, in both locations, that the majority of people either didn’t know much about the coastal defences, or they weren't affected and had no reason to care. The modal answer was ‘neutral’ and was possibly chosen by many, as an easy way out of a tricky question with no obvious correct answer.

16. Annotated photograph of rock armour sea defence at Minehead. The large rocks can be dangerous to the public Pedestrians are forced to walk around the large groins Its not the most attractive of coastal defences. Sand from beach replenishm ent seemingly gets everywhere and makes the sea front look messy. Figure 8

17. Annotated photographs showing coastal defences at Porlock Weir The worn, jagged, and rusted wooden groynes, at Porlock Weir are evidently a liability. The harbour wall has begun to collapse, which is dangerous to the public on the ground above, and for the houses too. Figure 9

18. Figure 10

19. Coastal defence- Minehead: Bi Polar scores, the higher the score, the more effective the defense. Figure 11

20. Figure 12

21. This graph is showing separate scores of the coastal defences in Minehead for the different Bi polar criteria Figure 13

22. analyis Figure 1 shows that despite coastal defences in Minehead being sufficient to slow the power of the sea and lessen coastal erosion and damage, they are not particularly attractive, as is referenced by this wordle of epitome words used by those surveyed

23. ‘wordle’ of epitome words to summarise the coastal defences at Porlock Weir drawn from public questionnaire. Figure 14

24. ‘wordle’ of epitome words to summarise the coastal defences at Minehead drawn from the public questionnaire. Figure 15

25. Figure 16

26. Figure 17

27. Analysis The majority of my data shows the similarities and differeneces between the effects of coastal defences in Minehead and Porlock. Figure 3 shows that Minehead have clearly invested more money and time in a wider range of sea defences, as opposed to figure 4, which shows a small range of defences which have not been replenished, as the adopted strategy in Porlock is managed retreat.

28. Analysis (cont.) Figure 6 evidences the opinions of the general public who answered the questionnaire in Minehead as majorly impartial- and they claimed they were not particularly affected, but Figure 16, of the Flood Risk Analysis contradicts this, and shows that people really should care, as the defences are evidently stopping millions of pounds in damages.

29. Analysis (cont.) Figure 7 questionnaire results show that people in Porlock are largely neutral in their feelings, and those who were not neutral felt that the defences were perfectly adequate. This evidence is not contradictory when compared to the relatively low Flood Risk Analysis.

30. Analysis (cont.) Bi Polar range -3 - 3 In figure 12, Mineheads’ defences Bi Polar scores, it is evidenced that there is a correlation between variables like ‘how good it is at preventing flooding’, and ‘how safe it is’. As these increase, reaching scores of 2 & 3, variables like ‘accessibility’ and ‘aesthetics’ decrease(scores of -1 & -2). This is possibly due to the most effective defences being those that are huge and expensive, rather than subtle and inexpensive.

31. Analysis (cont.) Bi Polar range -3 - 3 Figure 13, of the Porlock defences Bi Polar investigation shows links of exactly the opposite end of the spectrum- when the variables of effectiveness decrease, getting scores of the accessibility and aesthetics go way up- possibly proving that the inexpensive defences are not as effective in preventing flooding, long-shore drift(LSD) etc, but look nicer.

32. Analysis (cont.) Figures 14 and 15 show compilations of epitome words that members of the public, and ourselves used to describe the coastal defences at both Minehead and Porlock harbour: 14 is Porlock and 15 is Minehead. Fig. 14 is evidencing the fact that the public is widespread, but they are overall impressed with the defences and the look of them. Fig 15 shows that many of the residents/ visitors at Porlock Weir were not keen on