Assessing Habitat Compensation Requirements in Estuary Environments

In the UK, the EU Habitats and Birds Directives have provided a legal requirement to protect a range of designated conservation sites from deterioration. This applies whether deterioration is due to natural or anthropogenic causes. The development of strategic plans for the management of flood and coastal risk management (FCRM) assets therefore needs to consider the implications on habitats. Some early estuary FCRM strategies, developed by the Environment Agency set out to compensate for all habitat loss regardless of the causes. More recently, Defra guidance has suggested that FCRM plans only need to compensate for those losses that are due FCRM actions, although they should seek to identify all losses. This approach leads to the requirement to define extents or habitat change and identify those changes that could be due to FCRM activities.