Coasts

protest bannerManagement and use of the UK coastline

The coastline is used in multiple ways, including:

  • settlement
  • tourism
  • agriculture
  • other uses (power, industry, defence)

Much of our use of the coastline was originally grounded in a belief that the coastline is essentially fixed. Thus, highly sensitive structures such as nuclear power stations are often found close to the water's edge while millions of people have invested serious money in property with a sea-view! For this reason, the traditional approach to any threat of coastal erosion or flooding has involved "shoring up" the coastline with hard engineering sea defences such as sea walls.

However, scientists now appreciate that the coastline is far more dynamic that had been suspected in the past and that engineering may not always be the best solution. Only 8,000 years ago, for instance, Great Britain was still joined to continental Europe as a result of lower sea levels. Early Britons lived in the middle of what is now the North Sea and the English Channel was entirely dry! In the space of just several decades centuries, sea-levels rose to create the coastline we know today (all of this was a result of ice melting at the end of the Pleistocene ice age).

Could such significant changes take place over such a relatively short time-scale once again? If so, what kind of defences or management techniques will we need to protect us in the future?

What issues arise from climate change for how the UK coastline is used and managed?

The National Trust recently made an assessment of the threat posed to coastal sites under its ownership in a report called Shifting Shores. Using Flood Risk Maps provided by the Environment Agency in conjunction with predictions of sea-level rise due to climate change, the National Trust Coastal Risk Assessment indicates that over the next century:

  • 169 sites along some 608 kilometres (60%) of National Trust-owned coastline could lose land by erosion
  • 10% of this loss could take place between 100 - 200 metres inland
  • Another 5% could take place more than 200 metres inland
  • 126 sites with land covering 40 square km are currently at risk from tidal flooding
  • 33 further low-lying sites are at risk of combined tidal and river flooding within the next 100 years

What can be done? Holding the line and resisting change through hard defences, often in the form of rock or concrete, have been the National Trust’s traditional responses to coastal change. However, during the last few years the charity has changed its outlook. The Trust is arguing that “through evidence and experience we now have a better understanding of the forces of nature and the consequences of working against them. Our policy is to take a long-term view, working with natural coastal change wherever possible.” Recognising that some changes cannot be prevented, the new report concludes that “we favour adaptation.”

In practice, this now means abandoning land to the sea wherever possible as part of a policy called managed retreat. In June 2004, DEFRA - the government department responsible for sustainable development - published their own consultation paper titled Making Space for Water. The very title will make coastal dwellers extremely nervous, especially when the content reads: “the government proposals that solutions for flood management and coastal erosion that work with natural processes to make more space for water should be identified and pursued wherever possible.”

Student Practice Question:

Examine the reasons for and the consequences of coastal management strategies

The reasons for management should encompass both the value of the coastline (why there is a case for conserving it) as well as the nature of the threat (and here, climate change / sea-level rise should be discussed). The consequences of any strategy are that some measure of success may be achieved while substantial costs are incurred. However, students may additionally take a long-view and look at the way that continued sea-level rises mean that no strategy can ever be hailed as a "complete success" - as current levels of protection may soon become inadequate. This essay is thus a good showcase for a discussion of managed retreat.