For our fieldwork enquiry, our Year 11 pupils visited West Wittering Beach, located on the south coast of England, in West Sussex, near Chichester. It’s a sandy beach facing the English Channel and is part of Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding natural Beauty (AONB), making it an ideal site for studying coastal processes and landforms. The area is safe, and has easy access for measuring longshore drift, beach profile and sediment analysis. The following report comes courtesy of Theo Berry and Seb Currie:
'Our guides were members of the Chichester Harbour Conservancy, and we chose West Wittering Beach because it’s a safe, accessible, and well-managed coastal environment that clearly shows evidence of coastal processes. It was a suitable location for investigating our enquiry question: ‘to investigate physical processes taking place at west wittering.’ The site provided clear examples of longshore drift, changes in sediment size, and beach profiles; but also, is safe to collect data as there is minimal risk of strong tidal waves in the area.
We started off our day at West wittering by gathering in groups and being told what equipment we needed and their uses. We then went down to the beach, and we investigated the direction and strength of longshore drift, which is the key process moving sediment along the coast. Next, we measured the beach’s profile using our ranging poles and clinometer to measure the gradient of the beach. This gave us an insight into evidence for longshore drift and how it is impacting the beach profile. After a short lunch break, we headed back to the beach to draw some annotated field sketches of the coastal defences.
Our aim was to understand how erosion, transportation, and deposition shape the coastline and how the processes are influenced by coastal management strategies. We investigated longshore drift, and how it affects the movements of sediment along the beach. We also looked at coastal defences such as groynes: a type of hard engineering and beach nourishment. We drew field sketches of some of these areas and learnt how they would impact the natural processes. For example, groynes are designed to reap sediment and reduce longshore drift, helping to maintain the beach, while beach nourishment replaces the eroded material to protect the coat naturally.
Finally, we did a coastal management survey to assess the effectiveness, affordability and impact of several coastal management strategies in the area.'
