Archive for the 'Coastal planning' Category

Jan 13 2009

The UK model for Sustainable Shoreline Management - Part 1

Published by lwallendorf under Coastal planning

by Adam Hosking

Ed. Note: 

As sustainability continues to be a key focus in the engineering world, one component we face in the coastal arena is looking at coastal management on a long-term basis, planning not just for the next hurricane or keeping a beach nourished for a few years but for 20 or 50 years. In England, officials have done just that through the use of shoreline management planning. Learn more about this approach from COPRI member Adam Hosking. What do you think of this approach? Have you seen similar projects here? What works?

 

 

 

Background

Over the last 20 years the UK government has been evolving its approach towards coastal erosion and flood risk management away from the historically ad hoc approach towards the integrated, sustainable model followed today. This model offers a number of potential lessons for the management of these risks here in the US.

The UK has a highly varied coastline, ranging from high cliffs through to areas below sea level protected by beach-dune systems. This diversity gives rise to a broad coastal flooding and erosion risk profile. Recent studies have determined that, under a no action scenario, property loss due to coastal erosion in England and Wales over the next 100 years would amount to around £21 billion at 2005 values. Assets located in coastal flood risk area, have been estimated to be worth about £130 billion, with potential annual average flood damages of around £1.6 billion at 2001 values.

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