Adaptive Coastal Management at Three Sites in East Anglia

Coastal change includes all coastal processes, including flooding, erosion and the accelerating impacts of climate change. In the UK, Coastal Partnership East (CPE), the Environment Agency and central government (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)) are working together to drive towards a sustainable and strategic approach for communities to adapt to coastal change. This is especially important for those localities where insufficient cost benefit can be derived to provide traditional defences, funded wholly or partially by government Grant in Aid (GiA), or where traditional defences do not provide the best management approach.

Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) aim to identify sustainable, long-term management policies for the coast. SMPs consider these objectives over 100 years and are divided into three epochs (time periods); short term, medium term and long term. It is unlikely to be; economically viable, socially desirable or environmentally sustainable to defend many areas. SMPs have identified stretches of the coast for which no active intervention or managed realignment is the preferred option. Therefore, alternative management options, including potential adaptation measures, need to be considered. It may be more economically viable and sustainable in the long term to consider these adaptation options now, as anticipatory measures.

In 2009, DEFRA funded 15 projects to help communities adapt to a changing coastline, known as Pathfinder projects. Several reports have been commissioned to review the Pathfinder projects, particularly the largest 5 projects. The economic assessment undertaken as part of the Pathfinder review study showed that adaptation could be economically worthwhile and recommended that there should be opportunities for adaptation to be considered for funding under GiA. Three sites in East Anglia, in the UK, including; the villages of Trimingham and Hemsby in Norfolk, and a rural community at Easton Bavents in Suffolk are explored as adaptive coastal management case studies, following the conclusion of the Pathfinder projects.

Coastal adaptation is shown to be an effective management technique, where traditional Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) approaches are not considered feasible. There is a case to include adaptation in National FCERM and central government policy to enable such approaches to be equally considered and delivered. Delivery of adaptation will maintain and [re]generate sustainable and economically vibrant communities, whilst assisting in directing long term management and funding on the coast.