soft engineering

• where?

  • Wallasea Island
  • south side of the Crouch Estuary in Essex
  • feeds into the North Sea
• soft engineering replaced hard engineering in some places..

  • realignment = construction of new sea wall = allows land in front to be inundated by the sea = widens intertidal area = good for wildlife, recreation and manages flood risk.
  • new wetland = in ww2, areas were used for farming but now food is in surplus = farmland no longer important = areas used as wetland = more space for water = increased storm protection as waves lose energy when they flow over the old sea wall.
• coastal management in the past..

  sea wall was not maintained = high risk of flooding

  • 2700 properties
  • 9500 hectares of farmland
  • 168 km of flood defences
  • habitats, all damaged