The UK Landscape Challenge
The UK has landscapes worth protecting, but people also need homes, farms and to stay safe from floods. Explore how National Parks and flood defences try to balance nature and people.
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Protecting the view 🏞️
The UK has beautiful landscapes worth protecting, yet people also want to live, farm, build and stay safe from flooding in the same places. Balancing nature and people is a real challenge. This module is about National Parks and how the UK manages the risk of flooding.
Words to know 🔑
Four ideas run through this topic:
Why a National Park? 🎯
What is a National Park mainly for?
- Protecting a beautiful landscape while people can enjoy it
- Building as many factories as possible
- Banning all people from ever entering
- Leaving the land completely unmanaged
Two ways to hold back water ⚖️
Flood risk can be managed in two very different ways.
Hard or soft? 🔗
- A concrete sea wall
- A dam and reservoir
- Planting trees upstream
- Managed retreat
- Hard engineering that blocks the waves
- Hard engineering that stores flood water
- Soft engineering that slows the run-off
- Soft engineering that gives land to the sea
Nature versus people 🌊
A National Park protects the landscape, but people also want to live, farm, build homes and visit as tourists. This is a conservation-versus-development conflict. Planners balance it with rules, zoning, and by managing where tourists go and where building is allowed.
Which are hard engineering? ✅
Which THREE of these are hard engineering methods?
- A sea wall
- A dam
- Concrete flood walls
- Planting trees upstream
- Managed retreat
Approach and effect 🔀
- Hard engineering
- Soft engineering
- Conservation
- Development
- Strong protection but expensive
- Cheaper and greener but slower
- Protects the landscape and wildlife
- Brings homes, jobs and visitors
Making the decision 🪜
An interactive activity.
Complete the idea 🧩
A National Park protects a beautiful landscape, but people also want to build and visit, causing a _____. Flood risk can be managed with _____ engineering, such as sea walls, or _____ engineering, such as planting trees. Soft methods are usually cheaper and more _____, while hard methods give stronger _____.
True or not? 🖍️
An interactive activity.
The catch 🔎
What is one drawback of hard engineering?
- It is expensive and can look ugly or shift the problem
- It is always completely free
- It gives no protection at all
- It is the greenest possible option
Defend the coast 🧭
An interactive activity.
Evaluate it ✍️
An interactive activity.