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All development impacts in one way or another on geology, landscape, landforms, soil and water resources. Depending on the nature of its activity, development may enhance or may damage geodiversity.
On the positive side, it may:
create access to new geological information for research and education, via temporary or permanent exposures.
On the negative side it may:
destroy the integrity of landforms that have taken millennia to develop;
destroy finite geological deposits and the palaeo-environmental information they contain, including associated archaeological evidence of early human settlement;
contaminate and deplete soils and water resources.
Norfolk’s geodiversity has been exploited for human benefit for many thousands of years. However the integrity and accessibility of these resources is under constant threat, including:
Loss of geological exposures and/or information through
burial by coastal protection, landfill, landscaping or other planned development;
burial by dumping and fly-tipping;
vandalism and graffiti;
natural processes, such as slumping of unconsolidated sediments and vegetation encroachment;
non-recording and sampling of temporary exposures, including road cuttings and quarry sections;
damage to palaeo-environmental archives in peat and alluvium through drainage and excavation.
Castle Drain at Wormegay. Artificial channelisation of water courses destroys wildlife habitat and causes peat wastage, so reducing its carbon storage capacity and damaging fossil archives.
Photo Tim Holt-Wilson
Graffiti damage at Dersingham Sand Pit, part of a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and the type-site of the Dersingham Formation of Lower Cretaceous age.
Photo Gilbert Addison
A cutting at King's Lynn bypass, 1965, showing a new exposure of ironstones in the Sandringham Sands. Important local geological information may be lost if temporary excavations are not recorded and sampled.
Photo British Geological Survey / NERC P210193
Damage to the physical landscape and its geomorphological features and processes through
coastal protection schemes;
inshore dredging;
land drainage and river management schemes, including flood protection;
anthropogenic landform developments, such as bunds, cuttings, quarries and embankments;
built development, including infrastructure improvement.
A coastal protection reef at Sea Palling. Such hard sea defences are likely to alter the sediment supply to beaches and sandbanks further along the coast.
Photo Tim Holt-Wilson
The River Nar at Middleton. The river is artificially embanked and is perched over two metres above its floodplain. It is now prone to siltation and disconnected from a formative relationship with its floodplain.
Photo Tim Holt-Wilson
A high screening bund beside the Dickleburgh bypass. This artificial landform is at stark variance with the flat landscape of the surrounding South Norfolk glacial till plateau.
Photo Tim Holt-Wilson
Damage to soil features and processes through
destruction of soil profiles and structure, including compaction;
drying out and shrinkage of peat;
acidification and ochre accumulation;
soil erosion;
soil contamination;
import of materials and soil from other areas for filling and ground-raising.
A dust storm at Beachamwell, March 2007. The silty soils of Breckland are prone to wind erosion, particularly if they are left bare in spring time.
Photo Robin Stevenson
Destoning in a field in the Bure catchment. Removal of stones from fields makes cultivation easier. However it leads to progressive damage to soil structure and some archaeological features.
Photo Tim Schofield, FWAG
Mundesley Cliffs SSSI is designated for its exposures of Pleistocene sediments of the Cromer Forest-bed Formation and the Pastonian Stage. Sea defences here have stabilised the cliff, and the geological interest is now obscured by slumping and vegetation.
Photo Tim Holt-Wilson
Damage to groundwater and surface water through
pollution and contamination;
Soil acidification;
over-abstraction.
And lastly, and perhaps most importantly
Lack of public understanding about geodiversity, and why it is valuable to society for its contribution to economic life, science, wildlife, leisure and recreation.
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