coastal management

Isabella Olic 10.3 Geography ! Geographical Process Geographical processes have both positive and negative impacts on the coast. At Cronulla beach the coastline was dissipating at an alarming rate due to geographical processes such as longshore drift and destructive waves which would eventually cause erosion. ! Longshore drift is the process that results in the movement of sand along the coastline. The wind and the waves have an enormous impact on this process as they transport the sand particles diagonally from one end of the coastline to the other. When the wind is coming from an angle it will result in the waves to move the sand in a zig-zag motion along the beach. This process happens at Cronulla beach, the sand has drifted to Eloura and as a result of this southern Cronulla has had minimal amount of sand. ! Another contributing geographical factor that has shade the coastline of Cronulla is destructive waves. Destructive waves are large high energy waves that fall steep and have a powerful backwash that remove sand and other materials. Cronulla has had issues with destructive waves in the past. In 1974 there was a season of destructive storms that severely wore away Cronulla's coastline, the waves undermined the shoreline and the entire community surrounding the beach was under threat of quickly becoming eroded into nothing. ! Groups involved Due to Cronulla being such a famous tourist attraction, many different groups have came up with ways to help prevent the destruction of natural geographic processes. The local Government has come up with some very effective ways to counteract these barriers. The major sign for management strategies to be taken into account was the catastrophic amount of erosion that happened in 1974. The season of storms and destructive waves caused widespread damage and tore...