Industry and agriculture

crumbling cliffsThe changing location of industry

Many economic factors influence the location of secondary (manufacturing) industries, including transportation and labour costs, the availability of government grants and import taxes and tariffs. Physical site factors are also very important. The presence of raw material is an obvious concern for some basic processing industries, especially those connected with the food and energy sector.

More general physical requirements can include flat land (with room for expansion), often in close proximity to water (which serves several purposes, including use as a coolant, as a raw material, or as a transport route). Many industries are found in coastal locations as this is a break-of-bulk point, where goods or parts that have been shipped from one nation to another are de-containerised. Assembly industries that use parts transported from many different destinations are often located close to major ports. Although manufacturing has shrunk in the UK, significant amounts of what remains can be found on low-lying flat ground near to major rivers and along the coastline.

Physical geography is also a major determinant on other types of industry. Primary industries (fishing, farming, forestry, energy and mining) all depend directly upon the land. Tourism and leisure – a major component of the tertiary sector – are often highly dependent on climate and on the physical endowments of certain landscapes, including coastal scenery.

Why might global warming bring changes to the location of industry in the UK?

Some primary industry, especially agriculture, may be lost altogether if land is abandoned to the sea as part of a strategy of managed retreat designed to allow rising waters to take their natural course. If a cost-benefit analysis shows that the cost of maintaining ever more costly defences (as sea levels rise) outweighs the benefits of saving farmland then it may be given up to the sea. This has already occurred at Porlock in west Somerset, where agricultural land has been left to flood.

Many coastal-located manufacturing and assembly industries are likely to find themselves similarly at risk of flooding in future and may need to consider relocating inland should the high-impact scenario of a 0.7m sea level rise come to pass during the present century. More worryingly, many of the UK nuclear facilities are situated on beaches or close to the sea. For example, most of the Sellafield site is less than 100m from the sea and is only a few metres above mean sea level.

There will be winners and losers within the tourist industry and other tertiary industries as a result of global warming. At a local scale, rising sea levels could require many guest houses, hotels and attractions to migrate further inland, especially along the south coast where the land is sinking (due to isostatic rebound) at the same time that sea levels are rising (e.g. in areas such as Poole Harbour or Christchurch Bay). However, an expansion of tourism could be seen in more northerly regions of the UK, especially along the east coast where rainfall is generally lower.

Further Reading:

Student Practice Question:

Examine the factors responsible for the changing location of either manufacturing or tertiary industries.

While most answers are sure to discuss low labour costs in Newly Industrialised Countries as well as the changing availability of government grants, a broader response might take in include climate change as a growing influence on decision-making, especially for new businesses.