The Isle of Wight
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Totland Bay is in the village of Totland. The beach has several groins along its sandy shores, backing onto a seawall where the sand turns to pebbles. The coastline is rocky yet for the most part covered in trees and greenery. There are many houses, buildings and military road which goes through the whole island, it is protected with 2 of the strongest defenses (sea wall and groins), over time the cliffs would erode and the village would slowly start to disintegrate and be destroyed. There is a large fetch which means the waves are strong, which will erode the cliffs. Without the protection, human aspects of this part of the Isle of Wight would be destroyed including the road. Meaning they would have to rebuild. Which costs of lot of money. In 2012 a large landslip took off an extensive section of the sea wall separating Totland Bay from Colwell Bay.
2. Alum Bay is a large tourist attraction, on the clifftop there is an amusement park with fairground rides, souvenir shops and a cafe. Alternatively, a footpath leads to the beach via Alum Bay Chine. As you can see there are lots of people that visit there however it is not protected in any way as there are no houses or villages for miles and miles. The road is even quite a distance away too, this means that even though it has a large fetch it will take hundreds of years for the eroding cliffs to reach anything that needs protecting.
3.Tennyson (In the town of Tennyson) Down is a cliff which is made from chalk. Which easily erodes and is 147m above sea level. It is not protected and faces the English Channel, the closest country is France. It has a large fetch, however there is only grass land and there is no buildings or towns near by not even a road. So, they have no need to protect it. It does mean that slowly their island will slowly erode. But there is a monument nearby which could easily be destroyed if they do not protect the cliff
4.Culver Down is to the north of Sandown, Isle of Wight. It is made from chalk and is 104m above sea level and it is the natural habitat of flora and fauna for example lady’s bedstraw and pedigree falcons. The north side has intensive cattle who fertilize the soil and it is used as farmlands. The closest buildings are a large manor and a pub/inn, no housing or any residence. The bay closest by is Sandown and this is protected as it is extremely popular however Culver Down is not as it is only farmland surrounding the area and from the lack of population. For many years, the whole site was a military zone and not open to the public but now the public parts of this headland are owned and managed by the National Trust.
5.Blackgang chine cliff is eroding extremely fast and there in no protection. On it is the UK’s oldest amusement park which gets thousands of visitors per year . It faces the English Channel and is now being destroyed by coastal erosion. It is made from clay resulting in huge landslips making it look more rugged. Currently the cliffs are eroding at about 3.5 meters per year so it is not gradual, large areas tend to collapse after or while heavy rain is taking place. The most destructive falls happened in 1928,1961 and 1994 so this has been slowly happening over time. Continual landslides and coastal erosion took away the paths in the early 1900’s and since then the chine has repeatedly forced the owners to move the park further in land. This location needs to be protected or else they will lose this historic sight. In 1792 about 100 acres of land, together with a farmhouse called Pittlands, slid towards the sea, destroying the house. The road that crossed this area became narrow and access was restricted until 1928 when another major cliff fall caused the road to be closed for good. If this place is not protected soon all the history will fall into the sea, using the strongest coastal protection methods for example sea walls and groyns.
