1.1.10

• Coastal management is changing, but why?

  • more people are living at the coast (the problem has got bigger)
  • climate change is playing an increasingly important role to the processes at work at the coast
  • many coastal zones are experiencing sediment deficits 
  • many coastal zones are experiencing subsidence
• Coastal managers are now ‘working with the processes’ to bring about more resilient and sustainable results, instead of trying to resist the forces at work. These approaches tend to;

  work with natural physical systems and processes to reduce the coastal erosion and flood threat

  be less obvious and intrusive at the coast

  • be cheaper in the long term

  However, these approaches are not always an option for some coastlines
• The Earth Summit in Rio (1992) encouraged all types of environmental management to have a holistic approach. 

  This led to ICZM’s and the idea of sustainability on our coasts. 

  In geographical terms it also means considering matters at different scales, understanding the coast as a system.
• Shoreline Management Plans (1995 - to the present day)

  Based largely on the 11 sediment cell systems. 

  Primary aim of SMP’s is to identify the most sustainable approaches to managing coastal flooding and coastal erosion risks to the coastline across 3 timescales;

  -short term 0-20yrs

  -medium term 20-50yrs

  -long term 50-100yrs
• Strategic Coastal Defence Options (SCDO’s)

  • Advance the line build defences seaward of the current coastline; most likely to be achieved by land reclamation
  • Hold the line maintain and/or strengthen existing defences to prevent any flooding or erosion; rebuild sea walls, raise the height of sea defences, e.g. embankments, beach nourishment, maintain groynes
• Strategic Coastal Defence Options (SCDO’s)

  • Managed realignmentlet natural processes operate with help, allow the development of landforms such as salt marshes. Involves loss of previously protected land but in a controlled way

  No active intervention - natural processes are not prevented from operating so that the coastal zone system functions with no interference
• Positive impacts of human activity on coastal processes and landforms including management and conservation

  These include:

  -adoption of sustainable management and conservation of coastal environment, using soft engineering techniques

  -increasing use of integrated shoreline management strategies, which consider all the conflicting needs and constraints along the coast rather than taking a piecemeal approach
• Conservation ranges from total protection through strategies allowing varying degrees of human activity. They vary in scale from very large to small areas of the coast. 

  Example include:

  • World Heritage sites - the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Jurassic Coast in Dorset
  • National Marine Reserves, called Marine Conservation Zones in England and Wales

  Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), e.g Sefton Coast, including the Ainsdale Sand Dunes National Nature Reserve in Merseyside