If so, can you tell me what’s wrong with this answer taken from a question asked in the House of Lords via the excellent theyworkforyou website…
UK: Coastline
House of Lords
Written answers and statements, 23 June 2010
Lord Laird (Crossbench)
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the length of the United Kingdom coastline in miles at (a) low, and (b) high, tide; and what are the lengths of the coastlines of (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland, and (d) Wales.
Baroness Hanham (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government; Conservative)
Information provided by Ordnance Survey for Great Britain and by Land and Property Services, an agency of the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland, indicates that the lengths of the coastlines at mean high water (MHW) and mean low water (MLW), (mean high water springs [ordinary spring tides] and mean low water springs in Scotland) are:
| Country | Length of Coastline at Mean Low Water (MLW) [Miles] | Length of Coastline at Mean High Water (MHW) [Miles] |
| England | 8,417 | 9,462 |
| Northern Ireland | 620 | 542 |
| Scotland | 14,675 | 13,186 |
| Wales | 2,323 | 1,999 |
| United Kingdom | 26,035 | 25,189 |
These coastal lengths include all offshore islands, and land areas which are above MLW.
The precise length of coastlines will vary from time to time due to natural and gradual changes arising from coastal erosion and silt deposition.
Written and submitted from Warsaw Airport (52.177N, 20.974E)
24 replies on “Call yourself a Geographer ?”
That isn’t a typo by any chance?
you mean apart from the transposition of the ‘results’ for England and the absence of Mandelbrotian caveat?
I think Ed’s more curious as to why England gets bigger as the water level gets higher. 🙂
Naturally they have never heard of fractals. If they had, they would know that it is impossible to tell the length of a coastline because it depends on the scale you are looking at.
Hmm is it that there’s no actual length, it’s all dependent on the scale of the map?
England grows when the tide is in?
Good spotting Ed, fractals needs a caveat more than erosion does.
While we’re being Geeky geographers, fascinated to see the coast of England at high water is longer than at low water and its only England that is like this. Initially I thought it was a mistake but it is actually possible.
How can the coastline of England be longer at high tide than low tide? That makes no sense.
When the tide is high we send our troops into another country! Thus artificially extending the coastline for statistics purposes. When no coastline exists we get the Conservatives in to peform some creative number crunching.
Now the interesting question: how long does UKHO (or Seazone for that matter) reckon the coast is. Also what about the Crown Estates? Am I wrong in thinking that the Queen owns this bit? Perhaps an urban myth….