Scenarios in Shoreline Management

Introduction

Sea level rise poses a potentially huge threat to the coastal communities of the world over the

next century. Whilst it is, technically, entirely possible to provide complete protection for

those communities, continued management is likely to be a financial burden that cannot be

met, even in a rich western country like Britain. Even if economically justifiable, continued

defence may also place communities at unacceptable risk in the future. National policies must

therefore encourage communities to adapt if they are to be resilient in the face of such threats.

But neither the magnitude nor timescale of the threat is currently accurately known. Planning