2B.12B: Policy Decisions

• What are the four coastal management policies?

  No active intervention, strategic (managed) realignment, hold the line, and advance the line.
• What does no active intervention involve?

  No active involvement involves:

  • No investment in defending against flooding or erosion, whether or not coastal defences have existed previously. 
  • The coast is allowed to erode landward and/or flood.
• What does strategic (managed) realignment involve?

  Strategic realignment involves allowing the coastline to move naturally (in most cases to recede) but managing the process to direct it in certain areas.
• What does hold the line involve?

  Hold the line involves building and maintaining coastal defences so that the position of the shoreline remains the same over time. 
• What does advance the line involve?

  Advance the line involves:

  • Building new coastal defences on the seaward side of the existing coastline. 
  • Usually involves land reclamation. 
• How is the policy decided?

  Deciding which policy applies depends on:

  • the economic value of the assets that could be protected, e.g. land
  • the technical feasibility of engineering solutions: may not be possible to 'hold the line' for mobile depositional features such as spits, or unstable cliffs. 
  • the cultural and ecological value of land: it may be desirable to protect historic sites and areas of unusual diversity
  • pressure from communities: vocal local political campaigning to get an area protected
  • the social value of communities that have existed for centuries.
• What are the three epochs (time periods) that SMPs use to plan for the future?

  Up to 2025, 2025 - 2055, 2055+.

  For example, a hold the line policy applied to an area up to 2025 may become a managed realignment policy after 2025. This is because by 2025 sea level rise is likely to have made 'hold the line' a much more expensive policy to apply.