Coastal Landforms & Processes

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

Successful completion of one of the below, or equivalent as approved by the subject coordinator:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject provides a detailed synthesis of the physical processes and linkages operating within the earth’s coastal systems. The coast is one of the most intensively utilised landscapes worldwide and Australia is no exception. Population densities and development pressures are all rapidly rising providing ever increasing stress on the landscape. Intense human development is however a relatively recent phenomena. Coastal landforms operate over much longer timescales than people. Beaches and dunes have natural cycles of erosion and deposition of decadal to centennial scales while cliffs may have a history of several thousand years. It is therefore impossible to successfully manage, or simply enjoy this environment without knowledge of how it evolved and operates. During this course we will explore the operation and management of the key landforms found at the shore.

The objectives of this course are to provide an understanding of:

• the landforms of the coast;
• the processes that drive their evolution; and
• the management of the environmentally sensitive landscape.

Field and practical skills relevant to understanding and managing coasts are also developed in this course.

Two essays (each 20%) of 1500 words each (due by mid-semester and end of semester, respectively), practical and fieldwork exercises done throughout the semester (10%) and a 2-hour final examination (50%) to be scheduled during the examination period.

• Coasts(C Woodroffe), Cambridge 2002

• Coastal Geomorphology, An Introduction (2nd edition) (E C F Bird) Wiley 2008

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Music

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Upon successful completion of this subject, students will learn how to:

• critically evaluate and synthesise literature and information;
• write succinctly and accurately;
• conduct library based research;
• apply knowledge (about given examples) to new cases;
• work independently to solve problems; and
• develop competence in writing consultancies and journal entries.

Students enrolled in the BSc (both pre-2008 degree and new degrees), or a combined BSc course (except for the BA/BSc) may receive science credit on the completion of this subject.