Coastal Systems and Landscapes - Introduction

Coastal zones are dynamic environments in which landscapes develop by the interaction of winds, waves, currents and terrestrial and marine sediments.

The processes and subsequent landforms that are created in a coastal landscape originate from two main causes. energy and sediment.

Sources of energy are required to bring about change and be able to modify the coastal landscape

Sediment plays a role in certain processes of erosion and cycles around a system to form stores of deposition.

The key energy sources to be considered are:

• Energy from the wind
• Energy from the gravitational pull of the moon and sun
• Ocean currents

Biogenic sediments from decaying sea creatures, together with clastic sediments transferred into the coastal system by mass movement of weathered and eroded rock are equally as important to the system.