1. The Coastal System

2. The Study of Coasts
Coasts can be studied in several different ways dependent upon their classification:
Erosional or depositional
Sediment type (clastic: shingle and sand; or muddy)
Submergent or emergent
Tectonic setting
Process-based: wave dominated, tide dominated and wind dominated - the agents of erosion

3. Wave Dominated Tide Dominated Wind Dominated
Shore Platforms Mudflats Sand Dunes
Cliffs Sandflats
Beaches Salt Marshes
Spits, Tombolos Mangroves
Deltas Deltas
Questions & Answers
Cause and Effect
Knowledge & Understanding
Energy
High
Low
(French, 1997)

4. Coastal Processes Coastal Form Wind, Waves, Tide, Currents
Weathering, Erosion, & Deposition
Coastal Form
Dynamic over Space
& Time
Equilibrium
Wind, Waves, Tide, Currents
Sediment Movement

5. Cliffs and Shore Platforms
The Coastal System
ENERGY
WAVES
TIDES
WIND
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
MATERIALS
Dominant
Less Dominant
Terrestrial
Marine
Coarser
Finer
Cliffs and Shore Platforms
Mudflats
Coral Reefs
Beaches
Sand Dunes
(Hansom, 1988)

6. The Coastal System Coastal Systems:
coastal systems vary primarily in response to wave intensity and tidal currents
breaking waves (and resultant currents) provide most of the systemic energy
several additional factors also influence coastal processes and landforms
original geology of the coastline
relative 'erodibility' of regional bedrock
sea level variations (global and local tectonic or glacio-eustatic changes)
coastal systems typically characterized as erosional or depositional
erosional or depositional nature of any coastline varies with the systemic energy

7. Weathering & Erosion What is?
Weathering: Breakdown of rock (Geology) to form sediment in situ
Weathering is a set of physical, chemical and biological processes that alter the physical and chemical state of rocks and soil at or near the earth's surface. Rock and soil is altered physically by disintegrating and chemically by decomposing. Nearly all weathering involves water, mostly directly: frost shattering, wetting and drying, salt weathering, and all chemical weathering is in solution. That is, weathering is climatically driven and thus the term weathering. Because weather and climate occur at the earth's surface, the intensity of weathering decreases with depth and most of it occur within less than a metre of the surface of soil and rock.
Erosion:Transport of weathered material from one location to another...The wearing away of land or the removal of beach and/or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, drainage, or wind. Erosion includes, but is not limited to, horizontal recession and scour and can be induced or aggravated by human activities.

8. Erosional & Depositional Coastal Landforms