Sussex Coast: Pevensey Bay

• 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.