From the Autumn edition of the Environment Agency’s newsletter Flood News:

In April this year the Environment Agency became the lead organisation responsible for all flood and erosion risk management around the coastline of England.

This new role is a “first”, giving us a unique opportunity to lead the country in developing a coastal management plan that works at local, regional and national level. Our partner organisations, including local authorities, will put agreed plans into practical action. We will support them by giving Grant-in-Aid (GiA) funding and overseeing the work carried out.

The ‘Defend Our Coast Association‘ ( or DOC for short), set up by local people living on the Romney Marsh to campaign for local involvement and consultation in the preparation of Shoreline Management Plans for the Sussex / Kent coast have just launched a new website.

The published Shoreline Management Plan (Folkestone to Cliff End) contained various recommendations which caused great concerns to areas all along our stretch of coast and particularly its recommendations of ‘Managed Retreat” in some areas has put the Marsh at an increased risk of flooding and blighted properties on these specific frontages.

www.defendourcoast.org.uk

According to a press release, the RSPB has been forced to take radical action to save one of its best-loved reserves from the sea. To stave off catastrophe it has decided it must allow the sea to reclaim part of the reserve in order to save the rest.

Under the scheme, the sea wall will be moved back behind the present brackish marsh, which will be allowed to return to tidal saltmarsh. This will allow new and improved sea defences to protect the fresh water marsh and the reedbeds with their precious breeding bitterns from the rising tides. (more…)

The article in the Independent seems to have hit a nerve - here’s a summary of recent comments and reactions: (more…)

The Environment Agency website has a new flood mapping service allowing visitors to type in a postcode and find out if it’s at risk from flooding, from rivers or

The Flood Map is a multi-layered map which provides information on flooding from rivers and the sea for England and Wales. It also has information on flood defences and the areas benefiting from those flood defences.

The key for the Flood Map consists of the following layers of information:

• Flooding from rivers or sea without defences – the natural flood plain area that could be affected in the event of flooding from rivers and the sea
  - For flooding from rivers the map indicates the extent of a flood with a 1% (1 in 100) chance of happening each year
  - For flooding from the sea the map shows the extent of a flood with a 0.5% (1 in 200) chance of happening each year
• Extent of extreme flood – the extent of a flood with a 0.1% (1 in 1000) chance of happening each year
• Flood defences – flood defences such as embankments and walls, and flood storage areas (which are areas of land designed and operated to store flood water)
• Areas benefiting from flood defences – where possible we show the areas that benefit from the flood defences shown, in the event of a river flood with a 1% (1 in 100) chance of happening each year, or a flood from the sea with a 0.5% (1 in 200) chance of happening each year. If the defences were not there, these areas would flood. Note that we do not show all areas that benefit from flood defences.

A huge pile of sand and shingle has been moved past Felixstowe pier over the last few nights as part of a £10 million Environment Agency project. The new beach material, which was stockpiled just south of the pier earlier, is being used to recharge the beach north of the pier, as far as the war memorial opposite the town hall.

More information on www.felixstowetv.com including video clips

A Management Plan for the Suffolk Coast and Heaths, the officially designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) stretching from Kessingland to the Stour estuary has just been published. It is part of the family of protected landscapes that make up Britain’s finest countryside. At the heart of the plan, is a new twenty-year vision that sets out in detail the aims for the conservation of this beautiful landscape. The plan brings together the work of a 26 member Partnership that includes Natural England, Local Authorities, conservation organisations, community groups and businesses in the area.

More information can be obtained on the Suffolk Coast and Heaths website

The infrastructure network in the UK, including power stations, water plants, and transport systems is still far too vulnerable to flooding events according to a report, Flooding: Engineering Resilience, by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

In a section concentrating on the East of England, it also comments that:

“No other area of the UK is in such real and immediate danger from flooding as the East of England. It’s at risk from all sides: coastal erosion and flooding, tidal surges, river flooding and overflowing drains in towns and cities.

“In November 2007 Great Yarmouth and Ipswich came within 120mm of being swamped by a North Sea tidal surge. A controversial ‘managed realignment’ could sacrifice 6,000 ha of the Norfolk coastline to rising sea levels, according to the Environment Agency.”

Full details on the ICE website

The old English Nature website which hosted the original 2003 Coastal Habitat Management Plans (CHaMPs) and had been unavailable for a few months is now back online. The site had apparently been victim to malicious damage which has taken all this time to rectify.

The Winterton Dunes Coastal Habitat Management Plan is a contributor to thinking behind the leaked Natural England report with the infamous ‘option 4′ considering the implications of intentionally withdrawing sea defences to Potter Heigham and Stalham, resulting in ‘embayment of the Upper Thurne Basin’.

From the conclusions:

Given the long term (>50 years) potential for changes to the line of defence and the questionable sustainability of maintaining the existing coastal configuration along the Horsey-Winterton frontage, brief consideration has been given to the option of allowing breach of the dune system and the partial flooding of the northern Broadland area. While, clearly, this would have major implications of a socio-economic nature, it is apparent that the consequences for nature conservation and ecological interests would be of huge and beneficial significance. This is seen as a potential long term option opportunity that offers the scope for major ecological gain at a national level and in a location where, perhaps, socio-economic and land-planning issues may be more compatible with the overall vision than potentially similar large-scale habitat creation opportunities in other areas of eastern and southern England. It is clear though, that further study of the proposal would be required, particularly with respect to the viability of other long term coastal defence options. In this context it is important that continued monitoring of the Winterton frontage is undertaken in order to determine the accuracy of the predictions made in this CHaMP. Only with additional and longer term datasets can informed decisions on the future sustainability and strategic direction of coastal defence requirements be made for this stretch of the Norfolk coastline.

The original documents are now available again for download at http://www.english-nature.gov.uk/livingwiththesea/champs/pilots.asp

From a press release on the Natural England website:

On launching its ‘State of the Natural Environment‘ report, Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said:

“England needs a new approach to conservation if we are to tackle effectively the modern pressures on land created by climate change and development. The natural environment is increasingly under threat, both within and especially away from protected areas.

“We need to find ways to manage our landscape to create a mosaic of uses so that we can help wildlife survive - be it through a new ‘national park’ around the length of England’s coastline, better use of the green belt or improved use of public funding for farmers to deliver a better natural environment.

“If we don’t act, there’s a real danger some of our most precious wildlife will be lost forever and our lives will be poorer for it,” concluded Helen Phillips.

From the Eastern Region section:

Meeting the challenge in the East of England region

We will work collaboratively with others for a better quality of life, creating a prosperous, healthy, socially cohesive region with an attractive, high quality environment. We will provide leadership within the region on actions needed to protect, enhance and enjoy the natural environment.

We will work closely with other partners, such as the Environment Agency, to get our SSSIs into favourable condition, particularly those suffering from coastal and water related pressures.

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We will work with partner agencies and local communities to understand the impacts of climate change and develop solutions, including a resilient, natural coastline.

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