UK Landscape Management

It does not stop. It moves

Management usually arrives as a menu. Hard engineering on one side, soft engineering on the other, managed retreat as the awkward third option, and a list of advantages and disadvantages for each to be learned. ⚠️⚠️ AN ANSWER BUILT FROM THAT MENU SORTS SCHEMES INTO CATEGORIES AND NEVER EXPLAINS A SINGLE DECISION. IT ALSO CANNOT SAY WHY ANYBODY WOULD ARGUE ABOUT ONE. ⭐⭐ HERE IS THE IDEA THAT REPLACES THE MENU. A SCHEME DOES NOT STOP A PROCESS. IT MOVES IT. Sometimes in space, to somewhere further along. Sometimes in time, to later. And very often onto somebody else. Take a wall built to stop the sea reaching a stretch of cliff. Erosion has not been switched off. What has changed is that the material this cliff used to shed is no longer being shed, so the coast further along, which was receiving that material, now receives less of it and has less in front of it than it did. ⭐ THE WALL PROTECTS ONE PLACE BY CHANGING WHAT ARRIVES AT ANOTHER. Or take a bank raised to keep a river out of a town. The water has not gone anywhere. It is still in the channel, moving on, and now arriving downstream faster because it has been prevented from spreading out where it used to. Or a channel straightened and cleared so that water leaves one place quickly. It leaves quickly. Then it arrives somewhere else sooner, and in a tighter surge than before. ⭐⭐ SO THE QUESTION THAT EARNS MARKS IS NEVER WHETHER A SCHEME WORKS. IT IS THIS: IF THIS WORKS, WHERE DOES THE PROCESS GO INSTEAD, AND WHO IS STANDING THERE? ⭐ THAT ONE QUESTION DOES FOUR JOBS AT ONCE. It explains why schemes are argued about, which a list of advantages never can. Nobody argues about a scheme that harms nobody. It turns hard and soft into what they actually are, which is a classification rather than an answer. ⭐ IT MAKES MANAGED RETREAT MAKE SENSE INSTEAD OF LOOKING LIKE GIVING UP: IT IS THE OPTION THAT DECLINES TO MOVE THE PROCESS AND ACCEPTS IT WHERE IT ALREADY IS. ⭐ AND IT WORKS ON RIVERS AND COASTS WITH THE SAME SENTENCE, WHICH IS WHY THIS PART OF THE COURSE PUTS THEM TOGETHER. Carry one question through everything that follows: where does the process go, and who is there?

Where the process goes instead

Five approaches, each set out by what it does, where it sends the process, and who ends up carrying it. Every position belongs to the people who hold it.

Tap the two that move the process

Tap the TWO statements that describe a process being MOVED rather than stopped.

• A sea wall keeps the sea off one stretch, so the material that stretch used to supply no longer reaches the coast further along
• A raised bank keeps a river out of one town, so the same water travels on and arrives downstream faster
• Managed retreat moves what is behind the line rather than holding the line
• Planting increases the amount of water that soaks into the ground

Why hard against soft is the wrong start

A student begins every management answer by saying whether a scheme is hard or soft engineering. Why does that rarely earn much?

• Because it is a classification rather than an explanation: it says what kind of thing the scheme is, and not where the process goes instead or who carries it, which is what the question is weighing
• Because the hard and soft distinction is not really used in geography
• Because soft engineering is always the better option
• Because it takes up space that should be used for describing the landform

Five terms for weighing a scheme

Five terms, each defined by what it is. The last one names the weighing this whole topic asks you to do.

Match each scheme to where the process goes

Two that follow from displacement

Select the TWO statements that follow from a scheme moving a process rather than stopping it.

• Schemes are argued about because somebody bears the process once it is moved, which a list of advantages cannot explain
• Managed retreat is the only approach that does not move the process onto anybody else, which is also why it is the hardest to agree to
• A well-designed scheme can remove a geomorphic process from a stretch of landscape entirely
• The cheapest scheme is the one that should always be chosen

Weighing a scheme so that it counts

You may already have met the point that on this course formation and management are set together, so an answer is often asked to do both. ⚠️ THIS CARD IS ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT HALF, AND THE WEIGHING IT ASKS FOR IS MORE SPECIFIC THAN IT LOOKS. ⭐⭐ START BY SAYING WHAT THE SCHEME IS MEANT TO ACHIEVE AND FOR WHOM. Not what kind of engineering it is, but what it is trying to protect and who is behind it. ⭐ THEN NAME WHERE THE PROCESS GOES. Along the coast, downstream, or later in time. An answer that does not say this has not begun the weighing, however many advantages it lists. THEN SAY WHO IS THERE. ⚠️ A COST THAT FALLS ON NOBODY IN PARTICULAR IS NOT A COST THE EXAMINER CAN CREDIT. NAME THE GROUP: THE PLACES ALONG THE COAST, THE SETTLEMENTS DOWNSTREAM, THE PEOPLE ASKED TO MOVE, THE PUBLIC PAYING FOR IT. THEN PUT BOTH SIDES AT THEIR STRONGEST. ⭐ A POSITION YOU HAVE MADE EASY TO DISMISS HAS NOT BEEN WEIGHED, IT HAS BEEN DISPOSED OF, AND A MARKER CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE. AND THEN JUDGE, AND SAY WHAT WOULD CHANGE YOUR MIND. Either conclusion can be worth full marks. What is being marked is whether the weighing happened. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS HERE. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS LISTING ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN TWO COLUMNS AND STOPPING. Two lists are not a weighing. A weighing says which side is heavier here, in this landscape, and why. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS REACHING FOR A NUMBER YOU ARE NOT SURE OF. ⭐ THIS ENTIRE TOPIC CAN BE ARGUED IN TERMS OF MORE, LESS, FASTER AND SOONER, AND AN ANSWER BUILT THAT WAY CANNOT BE WRONG ABOUT A FIGURE IT NEVER GAVE. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS TREATING THE PEOPLE IN THE ANSWER AS A DETAIL. The specification asks for a specific named landscape precisely because the trade-off is only real when it has somebody in it. An answer with no one in it is describing a mechanism, not weighing a decision. One last thing. Real places have real people in them, and the fair version of this question does not suggest anybody chose their geography or deserves what the sea or the river does.

One river, and everybody on it

Take the river this course asks you to know, the Severn, and follow the shape of the problem down it. Nothing here describes any particular flood, and no settlement is named, because the argument does not need either. It rises in high ground in Wales, where the land is steep and the rain is heavy, and it runs a long way through much flatter country before it reaches the sea. ⭐ WHICH MEANS A LOT OF WATER IS COLLECTED WHERE THE GROUND SHEDS IT FASTEST, AND THEN HAS TO TRAVEL A LONG DISTANCE THROUGH PLACES WHERE PEOPLE LIVE. Now put yourself in one of the towns along it, partway down, and think about what you would want. You would want the water kept out. So you raise the ground along the edge of the channel, high enough to hold the river in when it rises. ⚠️⚠️ AND IT WORKS. THAT IS NOT IN DOUBT. THE TOWN STAYS DRY. ⭐⭐ NOW ASK THE QUESTION THIS MODULE IS BUILT ON: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WATER? It did not stop. It did not soak away. What it did not do is spread out across the low ground beside the channel, the way it used to, because it could not get over the raised edge. ⭐ AND WATER THAT CANNOT SPREAD OUT STAYS IN THE CHANNEL, AND WATER THAT STAYS IN THE CHANNEL MOVES ON. It arrives further down sooner than it used to, and it arrives more of it at once, because none of it was held back on the way. So the town downstream, which may have done nothing at all, now receives a faster rise than it did before. ⚠️ NOTICE THAT NOBODY BEHAVED BADLY HERE. THE FIRST TOWN PROTECTED ITSELF, WHICH ANYBODY WOULD DO. THE PROBLEM IS THAT ON A RIVER, THE PLACES ARE JOINED IN ORDER. ⭐ AND THAT IS WHY THE OTHER APPROACH EXISTS: CHANGING THE UPPER GROUND SO THAT WATER SOAKS IN AND LINGERS INSTEAD OF RUNNING STRAIGHT OFF. That does not send the water anywhere else. It delays it, so that less of it arrives at once anywhere downstream. ⭐⭐ NOTE WHAT THE TWO OPTIONS HAVE IN COMMON: NEITHER MAKES THE WATER GO AWAY. ONE DECIDES WHERE IT GOES AND THE OTHER DECIDES WHEN. ⚠️ AND BOTH COST MONEY THAT COMES FROM SOMEWHERE, WHICH IS THE THIRD PARTY IN EVERY ONE OF THESE ARGUMENTS.

Order the weighing

Put these six moves into the order that turns a scheme into a judgement worth marks.

• Say what the scheme is meant to achieve, and for whom
• Say where the process goes instead: along, downstream, or later
• Name who is there, rather than leaving the cost falling on nobody in particular
• Put both sides at their strongest, attributing each to the people who hold it
• Judge which side is heavier in this particular landscape
• Say what would change your judgement

Build the sentence that names the cost

This is the sentence a management judgement is built around. Assemble it.

The same question on a coast

You may have studied the north Norfolk coast, where soft cliffs retreat and defending them is contested. Applying this module's question to a sea wall there, what is the displacement?

• Along the coast: the defended stretch no longer supplies the material it used to, so places further along receive less of it and have less in front of them
• There is none: a sea wall removes erosion from that part of the coast
• Only in time: the erosion happens later but in the same place
• Inland, because the sea is pushed back onto the land behind

The management run

Five questions on displacement and weighing. Three lives.

Complete the management facts

Building a structure to resist a process and hold a line where it is, is _____. Working with natural materials and processes to reduce a problem rather than building against it, is _____. Deciding not to defend a line, and moving what is behind it instead, is _____. Weighing what a scheme costs against the value of what it protects, before deciding to go ahead, is _____.

Three judgements to finish

Three students write about management schemes. The geography is sound in each; the judgement is what needs work.

• A student writes two columns of advantages and disadvantages for a river scheme and concludes that it has both good and bad points. How would you improve it?
• An answer argues that a scheme is worthwhile because it protects homes, and does not mention anywhere else. What is the problem?
• A student concludes that managed retreat is always the right answer because it does not push the problem onto anybody else. Is that the strongest version?

Weigh a management scheme

A town on a river is considering raising the banks to keep the water out. Explain what the scheme would do, weigh it as a decision, and reach a judgement about whether it should go ahead. Either judgement can earn full marks if your reasoning supports it.

• Say what the scheme is meant to achieve, and for whom
• Explain what happens to the water once the banks hold it in, in terms of where it goes and how fast
• Name who is affected downstream, rather than leaving the cost falling on nobody in particular
• Give the strongest argument of those who want the scheme built, and attribute it to them
• Give the strongest argument of those who oppose it, and attribute it to them
• Mention one alternative approach and say whether it moves the process in space or in time
• Reach a judgement, say what would change it, and avoid any figure you are not certain of