Mendip Hills Vs Somerset Level

Similarities and differences between the Mendip Hills and the Somerset Levels.

The essay will address the main features and issues related to the Mendip Hills and Somerset Levels and also compare and contrast them.
The first one (also known as Mendips) relates to the type of a sedimentary rock. Approximately 12% of sedimentary rocks are limestone. Mendip Hills consist of a number of limestone hills to the south of Bristol in Somerset, United Kingdom. Sediments are often deposited in a series of layers that can differ in thickness and character and also consist of features, such as ripple marks. The beautiful landform of the Mendip Hills rises sharply from a flat
landscape of the Somerset Levels to the south – west of England. This Carboniferous limestone ridge with its highly weather – resistant sandstone peaks demonstrate us the features of a karst landscape, which resulted from soluble limestone to water and weathering, producing surface features, rivers and underground cave systems. The approximate area of Mendips is 200 square kilometers and the highest point is the Beacon Batch which is 325 m.
The Somerset Levels is a coastal plain that is flat, low – lying land adjacent to a seacoast.
Moreover, Somerset Levels is a wetland, which means that it is saturated with the water, particularly from the Bristol Channel. “This place is located in the south – west of England, running from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Somerset Levels have an area of about 160,000 acres (650 square kilometers) and are bisected by the Polden Hills. The Levels are 6 meters above mean sea level and the general elevation inland is 3 to 4 meters O.D. (ordnance datum) with peak tides of 8 to 8 m recorded at Bridgwater and
Burnham-on-Sea”.
In order to compare and contrast the landscape of Mendip Hills and Somerset levels, it is vital to understand what the landscape actually means. The landscape is the concept of the visible features of an area, including natural landforms such as mountains, hills, valleys, coastlines and water bodies such as rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. Also it contains living
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elements of land cover including vegetation and wild life. The concept of a landscape also comprises human elements, for example buildings, roads and infrastructure in general. The last element of the landscape is changeable elements, for instance weather conditions.
The common feature of both Mendip Hills and Somerset levels is a lack of trees.
Particularly in Mendips the plateau and hill tops are largely treeless. One of the main reasons for this is that Mendip Hills are mostly made of rocky layers. “Rocks aren't all that biologically active, which means that they don't enhance the soil's productivity much and therefore tree roots have a tough time getting the nutrients that they need to survive”. In terms of Somerset levels and Moors it is also notable that in this particular region there is a shortage of trees. This may be due to regular and frequent floods or specific type of soil that does not allow trees to grow
high.
The second common factor of Mendip Hills and Somerset levels is that they both play an important role for the natural habitats and ecology in general. Mendip Hills are populated by a big number of different species. There are birds, an example could be “Dartford warber”; insects, for instance “Four spotted chaser”; mammals, such as “Hazel dormouse” and “Horseshoe bat” and also many types of butterflies. Mendips play a big role for all these species, because it has favorable environment. For example, caves in these hills are the best home for bats. In terms of animals of Somerset Levels it is a bit different due to its plains and landscape in general. There it is more common to see cattle, sheep and other mammals on the farms than in Mendip Hills.
However, there are some visible differences in the landscape of Mendip Hills and Somerset Levels. Beginning with the first one, due to the karst nature of the landscape there are no surface rivers on the Mendips limestone. However they are located under the ground but they emerge at the base of the hills. These springs feed the headwaters of the rivers Sheppey, Axe and Cheddar Yeo which in turn feed into the Blagdon Lake Reservoir (Congresbury Yeo), Chew Valley Lake Reservoir (River Chew) and the Cheddar Reservoir (Cheddar Yeo). Whereas Somerset Levels is a landscape of rivers and wetlands, artificially drained, irrigated and modified to allow productive farming in this flat area.

Several rivers flow into the Somerset Levels from surrounding National Character Areas (NCA), producing a complex physical link. The drainage of rivers from this area is 4 times bigger than the size of the Somerset Levels flowing through the area, often above the level of the surrounding land, so that at times large volumes of water are moving through the NCA en route to the Severn estuary. Rivers that drain into the Somerset Levels include the Axe, Brue, Parrett, Yeo and Isle. The majority of the area is sensitive to flooding, lying below high tide level and the water level of the main, embanked river systems.
Some of the rivers, such as the Axe, Brue and Parrett, flow through the Somerset Levels to Bridgwater Bay. The channels in the area are rich for the fish populations that they assist, particularly eels, but eel numbers have been fallen significantly in the last decade. The streams have been largely changed, erected and embanked by drainage systems that in turn produced new water bodies, for example the river Huntspill. The perception of an altered landscape built over a couple of centuries of management, usually in a gradual unplanned way responding to prevailing problems and requirements. The history of that area is described by periods of decline and flooding, which than turned into an impulse of intense drainage improvements.