Adapting to Coastal Change represents a staging post in the evolution of a policy framework on adapting to coastal change.  CLG’s new Planning Policy Statement 25 Supplement: Development and Coastal Change that was published on 9th March, and the work of the 15 coastal change pathfinders that were announced on 1st December last year, are both key parts of this evolving picture.  Lessons learned by the pathfinders will help inform future developments of this framework in the form of further guidance and/or policy.  Further details about the pathfinders are available on the DEFRA website via http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/flooding/manage/pathfinder/index.htm.

Adapting to climate change needs to become as much of a priority as cutting emissions, MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee argue in a report out today.  Climate projections show that Britain can expect wetter winters, drier summers and a higher likelihood of flash-floods, heat waves and droughts.  The report concludes that Government must do more to raise awareness of the need to prepare for a changing climate.

Tim Yeo, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee said:

“For a long time the climate change debate has focused on reducing carbon emissions, but adapting to the inevitable impacts of rising global temperatures is equally critical.

“Even if all the world’s power stations were switched off tomorrow past emissions mean that some climate change will still take place and we will face more floods, droughts and heat waves.

“We must act now to protect people, property and prosperity and safeguard the natural environment. Delay will only impose greater costs on future generations.

“The Government must be imaginative and establish new and sustainable sources of funding and support for adaptation.”

Adapting infrastructure and homes will be expensive.  More intense rainfall will make flash flooding more likely and the risk of coastal erosion will increase as climate change causes sea levels to rise. To maintain current levels of flood protection for homes, real terms spending on flood defences will need to increase from its current level of around £6oo million per annum to around £1 billion in 2035. Estimates in 2009 suggest that by the end of the century around £7 billion may be needed to improve the Thames flood barrier and tidal defences.

New homes being built now must be designed to cope with the inevitable changes in climate we will see over the next 50 – 80 years. The Government must make adaptation and mitigation more central to the planning system. New developments should only be permitted if they are suited to future climates.

Existing homes will also need to be adapted so that they are comfortable during hotter summers and better protected against the risk of flooding. The Government must help to kick start an integrated retro-fitting programme that covers adaptation, water efficiency and energy efficiency. Green infrastructure – such as water storage, greater tree cover and more open green spaces – must also be promoted.

Over the next twenty years 200 homes are likely to be made unsafe to live in due to coastal erosion and by then an additional 2,000 could be at risk. The Government must be clear on how it will help those worst affected by climate change – such as those who lose their homes from coastal erosion – as this will encourage others to address the risks they face.

The Committee is urging the Government to ensure that the country takes a coherent approach to adaptation – with all Whitehall departments addressing climate change risks and local communities helped to address the risks they face.

The Sixth report from the Environmental Audit Committee can be accessed on the parliament.uk website

The coast is dynamic. That is, it changes – with the tides, with the seasons and with the climate; and so too should our approach to it, or so claims the recent Consultation on Coastal Change Policy, issued by Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). This article explores some of the issues facing planners in coastal areas and examines the response to them in the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG’s) Consultation Paper on a New Planning Policy on Development and Coastal Change.

The construction of coast erosion and flood defences over the years has created the impression that resisting the action of the sea in particular locations will somehow achieve a static state within which we can act with certainty about the future. In the face of sea level rise, however, it has become all too apparent that this is a false assumption, and ‘coastal change’ has for the last two decades become an increasingly common phrase.

Many of our coastal resort towns grew in the 19th and 20th centuries behind flood and coastal defences (and the promenades that went with them) first engineered by wealthy Victorians. This was obviously not the first time the natural line of our coast had been manipulated; however, it was the Victorians who created, on a large scale at least, the process which is perhaps the root of many of the coastal challenges we face today: the cycle of defend-develop-defend. But protected settlements are only secure from erosion if the defences can be maintained, which with rising sea level becomes technically more challenging and increasingly more expensive to achieve.

Read the full article

“Coastal views – Shoreline Management Plans in sight”

That’s the headline from one section of the Aummer 2009 edition of Floodnews, a quarterly business briefing for professionals whose work is affected by flood and coastal erosion issues.

The second series of Shoreline Management Plans are now securing approval, and publication of the completed documents has begun.

Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) report on the natural evolution of the coast and the predicted impacts on the environment using three epochs: 20, 50 and 100 years into the future. They help set the long-term planning and investment for coastal defences.

To coincide with the release of SMPs, we are preparing complementing online information to show the areas of the English and Welsh coastline at risk of erosion. The information
will show the impact of erosion and agreed management policies for England and Wales. Our modelling uses the latest scientific data and the most recent UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09).

Other information in the edition includes:

• Emergency response: we’re part of the team
• Carlisle champions flood defence excellence
• News in brief – including ‘Flooding in Wales’
  

Access Floodnews from the Environment Agency website

It is perhaps appropriate to recognise the extent and complexity of the possible problems facing the UK Government (irrespective of political persuasion) in managing the coast through what science is telling us may well be a significant and prolonged period of climate change. Of paramount importance will be our adopted Governance and how we manage our way through that period in the interests of all our people.

The coast is, of course, in the absolute front line of climate change where sea level rise and more unpredictable weather patterns could have a significant impact on communities within the coastal zone.

Read the full response to Defra’s Consultation on Coastal Change Policy by the Coastal Concern Action Group on the CCAG website.

DOC has provided DEFRA with a detailed response on behalf of its members and has urged all relevant  Local Authorities to do the same.  At the end of the consultation period copies of all responses received by Defra will be made  publicly available through their Information Resource Centre in London.

Following the consultation, the Government will analyse the responses and draft a final version of the policy. Government’s  aim is to publish this revised policy in 2010.

Read the full response from Defend Our Coast on the DOC website

That’s the headline from one section of the summer 2009 edition of Floodnews, a quarterly business briefing for professionals whose work is affected by flood and coastal erosion issues.

‘People in coastal communities have homes and businesses that they cherish. Living by the sea is part of their identity; for many it has been a defining characteristic of their family life for generations.

‘Flood risk and erosion, and their increasing threats, are emotionally tough. It strikes at the heart of personal happiness, lives and futures. Our work to consult and communicate with these communities needs to be at its very best. We are here to give them and local authorities every support we can.’ (North West Flood and Coastal Risk Manager Pete Fox)

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Rising to the challenge

In England and Wales today, there are over five million people and 2.7 million properties at risk from river and coastal flooding.

The figures contained in our latest National Flood Risk Assessment make sobering reading. It’s clear the country faces an enormous challenge.

Yet we are in a better position than ever to meet that challenge head-on. Working together, each playing our part, we can seize the opportunity to make real and lasting differences to people’s lives.

This edition of Floodnews is full of information that will help us all to start making those differences. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Best regards,
Robert Runcie
Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management Environment Agency

Other information in the edition includes:

• New publication reveals England’s flood risk
• The Flood and Water Management Bill
  
• Helping homeowners to help themselves
  
• Breaking new ground in surface water management
  
• Communities are central to coastal management
• New Flood Forecasting Centre goes live

Access Floodnews from the Environment Agency website

In the Norfolk Broads report, Natural England confirms its support for the current policy to maintain the current line of defence on the Eccles-Winterton stretch of coast, for at least 50 years, re-iterating that it is an adviser on flood risk policy and not the final decision-maker.

Summary report: Responding to the impacts of climate change on the natural environment: The Broads – a summary

Man’s activities are causing the world’s climate to change rapidly.  Although many nations will be able to cope with the impacts of climate change in the short term, albeit at a cost, long term, it will be a very different story.  Global governments will be meeting in November 2009 to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, proposing reducing global carbon dioxide emissions by mitigation.

However, as global emissions are not reducing and the climate is changing, the more pragmatic approach, as suggested by the Institution, is that only by adapting our behaviour can we hope to secure long-term human survival.  We have to look at how engineers might help our world to adapt to changes over the next few centuries.

The effects of temperature increase – the heart of climate change – will be felt globally.  For developed countries, such as the UK, flooding and rising sea levels will be a massive problem – a 7m rise in sea levels would mean the abandonment of most parts of London which border the Thames ie Canary Wharf, Chelsea and Westminster. For developing countries such as Botswana there would be extreme social and economic issues.

Four areas of engineering are considered under the above climate scenarios: energy, water, buildings, and transport, and how they will need to be adapted to deliver a more resilient and robust adaptive management system.

What needs to happen?

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers therefore recommends the following:

• Rising sea levels and increased flooding will require serious consideration of the viability of settlements, transport routes and infrastructure
• To protect the welfare of its citizens governments must support climate adaptation
• More research, development and investment in renewable energy sources is required to offset the loss of fossil fuels
• We have to invest in Carbon Capture and Storage technology
• The industrialised world has to take the lead in taking responsibility for the economic needs of vulnerable nations

Read the full report:  ClimateChangeAdaptationReportIMechE.pdf