Andy Bradbury died suddenly on 6 August 2014, a very significant loss to coastal engineering both in the UK and overseas. He was well known to many as director of the Channel Coastal Observatory based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, visiting professor in engineering and environment at the University of Southampton, and head of the coastal group at New Forest District Council.
Andy graduated from Southampton University in geology in 1981, and joined the recently privatised Hydraulics Research Station at Wallingford as scientific officer, where he worked on the performance of seawalls, breakwaters, sea defence and coastal protection schemes. He designed, executed and reported both site-specific and general strategic research studies. Quickly, Andy started to apply his geology skills to the selection of rock materials for UK coastal schemes, then research on rock quality. He helped supervise research on rock degradation at Queen Mary College that later formed significant parts of the future CIRIA/CUR Rock Manual.
In 1988, Andy moved on to New Forest District Council as an assistant engineer in coast protection, where he applied many of the skills he had learnt at Wallingford. In 1990 he registered to study part-time for a PhD at Southampton University, on the response of shingle barrier beaches to extreme hydrodynamic conditions, which he completed in 1998.
Through the early 1990s Andy designed the Hurst Spit stabilisation scheme. He was the driving force behind this scheme and was instrumental in New Forest District Council being the first local authority to obtain its own dredging licence to enable the replenishment works to be undertaken. This £6 million scheme was delivered in 1996 and won the Institution of Civil Engineers Merit Award in 1997. The scheme has continued successfully to provide protection to the western Solent since its completion.
Andy was an influential player within the UK coastal engineering community and served on the Institution of Engineers coastal engineering advisory panel. He was chairman of the Southern Coastal Group and lead advisor to the chairman of the Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline (SCOPAC). He was a member of numerous national steering groups and project boards, including the UK Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting service, and the Environment Agency's theme advisory group on coastal research, development and dissemination. As chair of the Southern Coastal Group he arranged many field visits to inform politicians but was more renowned for his ‘muck and bullets’ approach to practical workshops to share methods, techniques and ideas on practical coastal management issues not found in conventional literature.
In February this year Andy was invited to give the prestigious Institution of Civil Engineers Vernon Harcourt Lecture in a bid to share his enthusiasm and knowledge for the coast and the value of long-term monitoring that he was so committed to. He was also a driving force in developing the next generation of coastal engineers and was generous with his advice to young researchers. It is hoped that his legacy of sharing knowledge to stimulate and inspire will continue.
It was Andy's foresight and vision that led to the development of a coordinated and consistent regional approach for coastal monitoring and data collection for the southeast of England. He established the Channel Coastal Observatory to deliver this Defra-funded programme and was instrumental in the development of the national network of regional coastal monitoring programmes; he also led the way in the drive to make such data freely available. These large-scale programmes attracted a combined budget of over £32 million, and continue to provide input data for the design and management of England's coastal protection and coastal flood defence schemes.
Often, his was the first advice sought for large-scale physical modelling, culminating in an extensive programme of prototype-scale experiments at the GWK flume in Hannover in 2002. His pleasure in conducting experiments in a 300 m-long flume with 2 m waves plunging onto a shingle beach will be a lasting memory for those fortunate enough to have been involved. Andy continued to be a staunch supporter of HR Wallingford's national role, acting particularly to guide research initiatives, and as a funder of research studies on beaches. He was at Wallingford over the last few days before he died to review progress of his research study into bimodal waves on shingle beaches, and to discuss a joint approach to a new research project on mixed beaches.
Barrier beaches, and in particular Hurst Spit, were an overriding research passion of Andy's, and he would often kayak in the Keyhaven and Lymington estuaries in the lee of the spit with his wife, Lyndsey. A lasting memory for all in the coastal group will be of Andy standing on top of the spit and directing the emergency repair works following the St Valentine's storm; he was in his element.
Andy's insight, enthusiasm and expertise will be greatly missed by his many friends, and by the coastal engineering profession as a whole.
