Adapting to coastal change; Northey Island, Essex, UK

The National Trust (NT) is committed to working with nature and adapting to the increasing pressures of climate change and rising sea levels. Northey Island is located within the highly designated Blackwater Estuary, Essex, United Kingdom (UK) and presents an opportunity to implement integrated and sustainable solutions for adapting to coastal change over the next 100 years.

The coastal adaptation strategy being implemented at Northey Island follows on from England’s first managed realignment scheme that was implemented on the Island in 1991. The existing sea defences (clay embankments) are all presently in poor condition and in 2013 their management responsibility was formally passed over to the National Trust as the landowner by the Environment Agency. The impacts of rising sea levels are leading to loss of saltmarsh habitat around the Island and so an innovative strategy comprising of a suite of management approaches has been developed – this is the NT Coastal Adaptation Strategy. The strategy provides long-term, holistic solutions to the pressures of climate change and sea level rise, seeking to both safeguard the important intertidal habitat and allowing the estuary space to adapt over the coming century. The project also aims to improve public awareness of coastal change and its impacts to the natural environment as well as providing information on adaptation measures; building understanding and confidence as a catalyst to coastal adaptation across the UK and elsewhere, in the same manner as was successfully achieved by implementing the first managed realignment scheme, now well over 25 years ago.