Coastal Environment
Course Objectives:
1. To understand the coastal environment, depositional and erosional processes and
landforms
2. To handle the field equipment on site
3. To analyze field data through Global Positioning System and Google Earth
Relevance to the Curriculum
1. Managing River and Coastal Environment
2. Dynamic Earth
Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Fieldwork Skills




Field Observation
Measure the micro-climatic data
Use of Global Position System (GPS)
Apply Geographic Information System
Activities/Tasks
1.
GPS Application：
 Switch on the GPS receiver to record the route of fieldwork
 Press the button of GPS receiver in each field site to mark the specific location
2.
Collect data of coastal environment and record in the task sheet:
 To observe the characteristics of sea waves through field equipment
 To measure micro-climatic data
3.
Take photos as field evidence
Equipment List
Equipment (Per Group)
Quantity
1.
Anemometer and Digital thermometer
1
2.
Compass
1
3.
GPS receiver
1-2
4.
Water Bottle
1
2
Check-in
Check-out
Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
Base Map:
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2016-17
Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Information of the fieldwork day:
Date
(dd/mm/yy)
Season
* Spring / Summer / Autumn / Winter
℃
Temperature
Precipitation within
* had heavy rain / had drizzle / never rain
these 3 days
*Delete as inappropriate
Notice: Please adjust the time of your digital camera
Site 1 & 4：Kwun Yam Bay and East Bay
Measure and record the following data.
1.
Wind:
Site 1：Kwun Yam Bay
Site 4：East Bay
Wind direction
m/s
Wind Speed
2.
m/s
Wave:
(a) Type of sea wave
Destructive wave (10-15 per minutes)
Shorter wave length
Constructive wave (6-9 per minutes)
Longer wave length
Steep wave
Gentle wave
backwash > swash
swash > backwash
Site 1：Kwun Yam Bay
Site 4：East Bay
＊destructive/ constructive
＊destructive/ constructive
Frequency of wave
Type of wave
*Delete as inappropriate
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Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
(b) Movement of sea wave
Place a water bottle along the coastline. Spend 5 minutes to observe how the waves
approach the shore, and then draw a line to show the movement of the water bottle.
Use an arrow to show the direction of the movement.
Site 1：Kwun Yam Bay
Sea
Beach
Site 4：East Bay
Sea
Beach
3.
Appearance of the beaches:
Site 1：Kwun Yam Bay
(a)
Grain size of
the sand
(b)
Gradient of the
beach
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Site 4：East Bay
Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Refer to the data collected from Site 1 and 4, think about the
following questions.
i.
How does the gradient of the beach affected by
the wind and the wave?
ii.
Which beach has coarser sand? Why?
iii.
Does longshore drift appear at both sites? Will
it lead to any positive/ negative impacts?
Site 2：Helipad
On the helipad, look around the coast from the north headland to the south headland.
Observe and record the following coastal landform features and human activities.
Coastal landform features:
Features of coastal erosion
Features of coastal deposition
Human activities:
How do people make use of the coast?
How do people protect the coast?
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Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
Site 3：Warwick Hotel
Compare the characteristics of the rock under the hotel (Rock A) to granite
.
Granite
Rock A

grain size and colour

joint

texture (touch and feel)
Rock A is igneous rock／sedimentary rock／metamorphic rock。
The name of the rock is
basalt／feldspar porphyry／breccia／marble。
Rock A / granite is more resistant.
Which parts of the following figure do Rock A and granite mainly formed?
Rock A: __________
Granite: __________
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2016-17
Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Analyze the relationship between this rock and the surrounding
landscape. Think about the following questions.
i.
How does this rock affect the formation of coastal features nearby?
ii.
How many floors are there in each building in Cheung Chau generally? Why? How
does this rock affect the height of the buildings?
iii.
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Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Site 5：Ferry Pier to Public Pier
On the west coast of Cheung Chau tombolo, what kinds of coastal landform features and
human activities can you find?
Compare the west coast to the east coast.
Coastal landform features:
1.
2.
3.
4.
More than/
less than/ similar to
the east coast
Coast related human activities:
1.
2.
3.
4.
More than/
less than/ similar to
the east coast
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Caritas Chan Chun Ha Field Studies Centre
2016-17
Discussion Session
1.
2.
How do the meteorological factors affect the sea wave? Justify your answer with the data
you recorded during the field work.
How do the constructive and destructive sea wave affects the coastal landform of
Cheung Chau?
Post-trip Work
Using the spatial data from GPS, make a track by integrating the site photos and inserting
texts on Google Earth. You can refer to another set of user’s manual for reference.
Extended Session
Using Google Earth (e.g. adding place marks, polygons and related photos) as
presenting tools, analyze the following questions.
1.
2.
Why is the ferry pier located on the western side of Cheung Chau?
Show how human activities affect the coastal environment with reference to the field
data.
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