Coursework Geography summer homework

Introduction
At the end of the school year, I went to el Saler and Pinedo , two really important beaches where lots of
tourist and local people, go and have a good time.
Playa el Saler :
(Google Maps)

Playa de Pinedo:
(Google Maps)

For the research, i chose el Saler and Pinedo because both are touristic places, so i wanted to see if there
were any impacts in the dunes system and the beach, caused mainly by human impact..
El Saler and Pinedo are located at the outsied of Valencia Capital. Firstly, Pinedo is situated 8,4km from
Valencia, El saler is situated 13,2 km from Valencia. This two beaches are 6,7 km away from each other.
In both of these sites, we were checking land use, as , how many space of the beach is occupied by
buildings, how many space of sand was for public use, if sand dunes were well preserved and protected
(fences... barriers).
As i went to el Saler and Pinedo , i didnt see much management, but i saw some clues which told me what
type of management was on those beaches, firstly, i saw some tire mark, this shows that red cross and police
quads, patrols the beach for safety.
I used a quadrat to measure the amount of vegetetion in a certain area.
For measuring longshore drift, i marked to different places (with a poles) ( start and end), i positioned a
tennis ball in the start, and using a stop watch, i measured the amount of time for reaching the other pole.
I went at the end of the school year for take samples of sand and check the dune system.
For igcse i chose coast and rivers because it was a really easy topic to take place in valencia , because we
have sea and rivers.

Methodology
1) What is your research question? : My research question is : Have sand dune system been interfered by
any un natural resource, such as human impact, caused by tourism and locals?
2) How will you do this? : I will walk by the beach, looking at the sand and dunes, trying to find evidence
which show my theory of , are sand dunes system interfered by human activity?
3) What results might you be looking for? : I will be looking for evidence on the beach, such as,
footprints, plastic, rubish, fences, lack of vegetation caused by footfall.
4) What equipment will you need to collect your data? : For collect the data i used a note book, quadrants
for measuring a proportion of plants, transects, and cameras for taking visual evidence.
5) How will you collect the data? : I will collect the data by observation, i will use a quadrant for
measuring amount of species, transect lines, and i will take all the evidence with photos. I will carry out my
investigation at different places of the sand dune system.
6) Why have you chosen this method? : I chosen this method because it was a simple and efficient method,
with this quadrats i measured the proportion of diffeerent types of vegetation over a certain area. This results
will enable me to compare results between diferent areas.
7) Are the results qualitative or quantitative?
My results will be a combination of qualitative (observation of the sand dunes and the beach) and
quantitative (percentage and amount of species which areliving in this habitat).
8) Would you expect to find different results if you visited on a different day? : I will expect to find a
difference in the results , usually more people go to the beach at sunny days, closer to summer (hotter) in the
other side there is a minory (more local people) which go to the beach at anytime of the year. So in my
opinion, i expect to find different resaults depending on the season. At the same time if there has been a
storm and the level of water has increased, this could led to an increase of destructive waves which could
cover or destroy this dunes.
9) Explain how you could improve the data collection if you had the time and resources to do so: I
would improve my data collection with more transects, i will spread them over a larger area. ( More evidence
= more reliability), also i will get some sand from different points, and i would have send it to the university
(for a scientific test).
Background to the research ( Source- Wikipedia)
Valencia was founded by romans as a colonie in 138.b.c and it was denomied as (Valentia Edatonorum) its
consul was Decimo Junio Bruto.
In 711 muslims conquered Valencia, apporting their language, religion, and manners. Like the
implementation of irrigation system and the introduction of new crops. This conquist was ended in 1238,
when Jaime I reconquered the city. He gave the city to the nobles which helped him, at the same time he
created new laws for valencia Fueros de Valencia. In the XVIII century Felipe V closed the fueros as a
punishement for joining to the austracistas in the Spanish Civil war. In 1982, Valencia was established
capital of the Comunidad Valenciana.
Turia Jarden was founded in 1986 , decades after la Gran riada de Valencia this jardin was founded for a
better communication between streets, a facility to communicate the port and the airport, and an oportunity
to decrease internal traffic.

Aereal picture: Google Maps

The 1957 flood was a natural disaster ocured on the 13 and 14 October 1957 . The flood resulted in
significant damage to private property and caused the deaths of 81 people.
Heavy rain had fallen in the city on Saturday 12 October, 2 days after there was a torrential rain in Valencia,
eventually the caudal of the Turia river overflew discharging up to 300,000,000 cubic metres into the city. In
the centric part of Valencia, there was not much damage, unfortunately newer areas and new buildings
situated at the north of the river were demolished, and some parts closer to the port such as Nazaret was
cut from the rest of Valencia by the force of the water, in some parts of the city, there was a water level of 5
metres!. The city was left without gas , water and electricity and around 75% of commercial and industrial
activity was affected . Almost 5,800 homes were destroyed, leaving approximately 3,500 families homeless.

(5- land use in saler and pinedo ) ? dont understand.

2 really important beaches situated at the south of Valencia are Pinedo and el Saler, this beaches have a sand
floor, in both of this beaches there are constructive waves( greater swash than backswash), it helps to build
up the beach , also they have sand dunes system, which are protected by the goverment for being a natural
resource, as its an habitat.
A clasic sand dune system seem quite normal, you need to observe with atention to observe the sand dunes,
which are fulled f many different plant species, unfortunately, some of this dunes, are eroded by footfall
(human impact).
A sand dune requieres the following three things to form:
1.A large amount of loose sand in an area with little vegetation, on the coast
2.A wind or breeze to move the grains of sand
3.An obstacle that causes the sand to lose momentum and settle. (Picture from Google Image- Sand dunes)

The grassland is majoritarily formated by mediterranean pines, which are also growing in the dunes,in the
border of the chanel there are groups of reeders where birds have their habitat.
The deposition of sediment can cause a variety of diferent landforms, deltas, sand bars, splits and tie

channels. There are several geographical processes whuch take place at the sea and the river, such as
corrasion, attrition,corrosion, hydraulic action. For transportation : traction, saltation, suspension, solution
and for deposition, loss of speed.
Longshore drift denominied as (LSD) it consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle
to the shoreline, lsd needs prevailing wind , swash and backswash . This process occurs in the litoral.
Longshore drift is influenced by numerous aspects of the coastal system, with processes that occur within the
surf zone largely influencing the deposition and erosion of sediments.
In el Saler and Pinedo coastline is managed but only in security for the visitors, lifeguards and police patrols.
In the other side, sand dunes are much more managed, they are protected with fences, and there are
information poibts about sand dunes. This ocuurs because sand dunes is an habitat and its protected by the
goverment.
El saler is a touristic place, with some bars and restaurants for tourist, at the same time, there is 1 hotel quite
near to the beach, (have a easier acess to the beach), also , there are information points along the beach and
the maritim path, which tells you information about these habitatsand dunes.
Tourist will have a human impact in the beach and the sand dunes. These impact is caused by footfall, rubish,
footsteep, and lots of many more factors.
Climate graph: January To September (2015) (Information from :http://www.accuweather.com/es/es/elsaler/306539/september-weather/306539?monyr=9/1/2015
35
30
25
20
Temperature C*

15
10
5
0
February
April
January
March

June
May

July

August
Septembre

El saler is a really touristic place, but unfortunatelly i dont have the information about how many tourist
come to visit this extraodinary sand dune habitat.