Sussex Coast: Pevensey Bay

Cards (19)

  • fundamental coastal processes
    prevailing winds from the SW move beach material via logshore drift towards the NE creating beaches that are more parallel to the waves
    Net loss of 25000m³ of beach every year
  • Coastal features
    9km long shingle bank from Eastbourne to Bexhill incorporating Pevensey Bay
    Shingle beach stretches the length of Pevensey Bay, crest height is 6m and the shingle bank extends 45m seawards on average
  • Risks
    coastal flooding is the greatest risk to this area due to its low-lying relief
    Sea levels continue to rise, wave action and longshore drift continue to move sediment
    Storm frequency appears to be increasing
    A 1 in 20 year storm event could breach the shingle beach
  • What is being protected: 10000 properties

    Impacts: This could cause huge impacts for residents in the communities affected. They might struggle to get insurance against flooding or to sell their homes. Thousands of people could be displaced and have to leave the area
  • What is being protected: Recreational sites

    Impacts: The local community and tourists will lose leisure oppurtunities
  • What is being protected: Commercial sites

    Impacts: Business owners will lose out on money as local population and tourists cannot go shopping
  • What is being protected: A259 coast road and railway line from Hastings to Portsmouth
    Impacts: People will not be able to go to work and kids won't be able to go to school
  • What is being protected: two nature reserves and a SSSI wetland site
    Impacts: Animal and plant habitats will be detroyed and biodiversity will decrease
  • SSSI
    Site of Special Scientific Interest
  • What is being protected: Livestock farms

    Impacts: Animals will not be able to graze and might die
    Less meat produced
  • What is being protected: Arable farms

    Impacts: crops will be ruined due to salt water contaminating the soil meaning the farmer gets no/less food/profit
  • Stakeholders
    local councils
    residents of the 10000 properties
    local farmers
    Natural England
    Environment Agency
    DEFRA
    Pevensey Costal Defense Ltd - consortium who manage coastal defense
    Westminster Dredging Compansy (Sospan Dau)
  • What management is in place
    Hold the line through soft engineering stratergies
    Beach renourishment
    Beach surveys
    Experimental use of tyres to build up shingle bank
  • Beach renourishment
    Sospan Dau scrapes shingle off the sea bed and sprays it onto the beach. At high tide 2000 tonnes of shingle can be gathered (equivalent to 200 lorry loads). Bulldozers are used for beach reprofiling. They redistribute the shingle sprayed onto the beach and push shingle back after storms
  • Beach surveys
    GPS surveys of the whole beach are carried out using a GPS reciever on a quad bike, twice a month at low tide. Surveys are compared and the replenishment and reprofiling is adjusted as needed
  • Experimental use of tyres to build up shingle bank

    banks of tyres are laid down and covered thickly with shingle. If this works it could be used in other coastal management projects. It reuses a waste product which is difficult to dispose of. As the beach is built up, new habitat is created. The East Sussex Coastal Biodiversity Project surveys plant species, numbers and distribution
  • Previous management
    included 150 groynes but these are being allowed to fail (then safely removed). Around 10 groynes are being retained and repaired. Despite this small element of hard engineering the overall stratergy for this stretch of coastline is soft engineering
  • Evaluation of approach: short/medium term
    short/medium term the hold the line policy is socially sustainable as it keeps the beach looking the same and protects the houses.
    The use of tires is environmentally sustainable as it recyles waste products and creates new habitats.
  • Evaluation of approach: Long term
    However in the long term it will not be economically and environmentally sustainable as it will cost a lot and require hard engineering and decrease the beach size and people may have to migrate or relocate so it is not socially sustainable in the long term either.