Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Question Help

'During the twentyfirst century climate change will make the costs outweigh the benefits of using traditional hard engineering approaches to coastal flood and erosion risk.' To what extent do you agree with this view (20 Marks)

Need help answering this question

Reply 1

Amefish

Original post by DebbieRose

It might be easier to split the question up. You need to look at climate change and how this will increase the risk of flood and erosion, eg warmer waters and rising sea levels. You can then look at a variety of hard engineering approaches and see if their effectiveness will decrease given the rising impact of climate change. You need to factor in the social, economic and environmental (SEE) costs of both the hard engineering and the impacts of climate change (flood and erosion). Some hard engineering approaches are costly to set up and maintain and might not work very well, so might not be worth it if the nearby land is derelict, for example. You can also give a flip argument that although some hard engineering approaches are costly (SEE), they do work and this means they are worth it because people don't have to deal with the costs of flooding and erosion, particularly if the population in this area is high.