Development along the coast is very popular due to the natural beauty of the area, and the opportunities that the coast has such as importing and exporting. Development includes things such as the building of human settlements, which would be encouraged by the fact that there would be jobs in the form of primary industries such as fishing but also in docks, which would be more development as they would have to be built. The coast can also attract many tourists, so more facilities would have to be built to accommodate these people. All of this can damage the environmental and ecological infrastructure of the area.
I would investigate the extent of this damage in two ways, the first being conducting research. This would be done by going onto the local council website and extracting information like the census which provides accurate information on the population and transport links. This information is good as it can tell us on what kind of scale the development is, which helps indicate the amount of damage that could have been done to the surrounding environment. Looking at transport links would also be useful as we can see how sustainably the area travels, and if many people use cars, it means that there would not only be more pollution but there would be a greater need for more roads which would area cause disturbances to the area if you are building on it.
I would also attempt to research whether the council has implemented any environmental protection schemes, which could also be found on the council website. This would be a good way of seeing how dedicated the city as a whole is to maintaining the environment, for example, Cardiff city is currently aspiring to become a ‘Carbon lite’ city, and their website contains information on this along with their recycling schemes and their sustainability goals. I would also attempt to