RE: ABPmer have been leading the way with their work on coastal management – this article covers both the recent success of the Selsey managed realignment but also ‘advance the line’/reuse of sediments.

ABPmer:   ‘The 2013/14 winter brought the issue of coastal flooding and management into particularly sharp focus in the UK. The large storm-induced changes which occurred at many locations attracted a lot of media attention and demonstrated to a wide audience why we must take an adaptive approach to coastal management. It has also provided an evidence base to show that coastal habitats provide the best and most sustainable form of sea defences.

As just one excellent example, the Environment Agency inundated its 300ha managed realignment at Selsey just weeks before the surges. This avoided both a damaging flood event and the need for a costly process of shoreline rebuilding. Such examples are an excellent way of explaining the flood protection rationale of coastal habitat creation.

This kind of message needs to be continually reinforced to provide the evidence needed to assist with the future implementation of new habitat creation projects for ‘soft engineering’ defences. It should always be noted though that habitat creation projects can encompass a wide spectrum of measures including these are typically seen as “advancing” rather than “retreating” existing sea defences. This includes, for instance, offshore reef creation to absorb wave energies or the beneficial use of sediments to build up beaches or saltmarshes.

In the past, the UK has often underplayed the value of such ‘advance the line’ projects and we do dispose of large amounts of suitable ‘waste’ sediments at sea and in landfills rather than using them to reshape and rebuild our vulnerable coastland habitats and hinterlands. In considering of this issue, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) recently commissioned ABPmer to review the options for beneficial sediment use on the south coast with a view to promoting an integrated approach to sustainable coastal management in the south marine plans area which are currently in development.

For this MMO project, ABPmer reviewed past beneficial use projects in the UK and developed a set of data and maps describing existing dredging sites and the opportunities/aspirations that exist for beneficial use projects in the future within the South marine plan area. We then made recommendations for future tasks that are needed to help realise more such beneficial projects in the future within in the South plan areas especially. ‘

To read more click here