Sustainable Integrated Approaches (AQA A Level Geography)

Shoreline Management Plans

• The apparent negative impacts of many coastal management plans have created a need for a more sustainable and integrated approach 

  • This means that different sections of the coastline are seen to function together rather than separated such as with more traditional methods like sea walls or groynes 

Shoreline management plans - UK

• Sustainable approaches require:

  • Management of natural resources at the coast like water and farmland; 

  • Monitoring of any changes to inform new strategies and;

  • Education and inclusion of the local communities to support the strategies 

• In a Shoreline Management Plan (SMP), each of the 11 sediment cells in the UK have had a detailed document written to identify the natural processes, activities and risks in the area

• DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) makes recommendations for all sections of the coastline

• They make recommendations from the four options: 

  • Hold the line: maintaining the position of the coastline using mostly hard engineering methods 

  • Advance the line: extending the coastline out to sea by building up the beach and land reclamation

  • Managed retreat: deliberate flooding of particular areas to manage the coastal retreat 

  • Do nothing: letting nature take its course 

• When making these recommendations DEFRA has to consider the value of the land and assets as well as the technical viability of management strategies 

• This can lead to local conflict because the SMP protects some areas and not others 

  • In Skipsea on the Holderness coast, erosion rates since 1989 have been 1.4m per year on average

  • People in Skipsea feel that nothing has been done to protect their village with a population of 700 whilst money has been spent on coastal defences in neighbouring towns and villages

  • The decisions were made as a result of cost-benefit analysis

Cost-benefit analysis

• This is used to decide the recommendations for each section of coastline

  • Costs are forecast based on known tangible costs of coastal defences such as how much 100m of sea wall will cost to build and maintain, and intangible costs such as the visual impact of the sea wall

  • The costs are then weighed up against the benefits for the environment and population

• Where benefits outweigh costs, such as the sea wall at Bridlington protecting population of over 36,000 and buildings from coastal flooding, then the project is likely to go ahead

• Where the costs outweigh the benefits, such as protecting the 24 houses at Skipsea from coastal erosion and flooding, a scheme is unlikely to be put in place

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)

• Large sections of the coastline are managed with one strategy 

• The shoreline management plans in the UK are a form of ICZM

  • Whole sections of the coast are managed together

  • They recognise that the sediment (littoral) cells interact with each other and that changes in one part of the coast impact other areas - such as the placement of groynes causing terminal groyne syndrome

  • In the UK this can cross political and national boundaries which means different councils have to work together 

• ICZM involves a range of stakeholders involved in the use and management of the coast and aims to:

• Create sustainable economic and social activities

• Protect the coastal environment

• Manage flood and coastal erosion risk

• Resolve any conflicts that may occur

• This type of management is also based on the principle that actions in one area of the coastline affect other places further along the coast 

  • This is due to sediment flows within the sediment cell 

  • Groynes are a good example of the opposite of this strategy as they cause the build up sediment on one area of the coast but then the starvation further down

• All stakeholders in the area must be included in the decisions within ICZM

• In 2013 the EU introduced an initiative to use ICZMs on all of Europe’s coastlines

• Any type of coastal management will create an impact elsewhere and this can create conflict 

  • Conflicts over coastal management often arise between those considering the economic outcomes of a strategy versus the environmental outcomes 

  • Homeowners and farmers often have strong attachments to a place so any change can cause a great loss