Adapting to Climate Change on the Suffolk Coastline through the Minsmere Flood Risk Management Scheme

A comparative study of beach nourishment methods in selected areas of the coasts of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands

“…Similarly, there is little difference in the project costs of rolling nourishment compared to continued hard defence maintenance [10]. However, meganourishment projects are estimated to cost half as much as the traditional rolling nourishment schemes and is supported by the direct comparison of study area beach nourishment in Table 1 [9,25]. The benefits, cost savings and Irrespective of the application of beach nourishment methods for either an individual authority (Lincolnshire -ELDC) or a provincial frontage such as South Holland, the beach nourishment project -whether rolling over five years or a mega-nourishment programme is expected to meet and must conform to the Water Framework Directive (WFD), Habitats directive and water Equality Quality Standards Directive (EQSD).…”

“…In order to achieve this, the programme administrators and coastal managers must ensure both the compliance and application of an effective integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) [10]. socioeconomic value from a combination of an extended beach profile and the provision of an amenity value to the local area whilst reducing coastal erosion rates is significant [9,25]. Figure 2 shows the post-storm damage to the hard defense structures recorded during the field trips undertaken for this study.…”

“…After the 1953 storm-surge and isolated surges throughout the last few decades, hard defences have been used as standard following public expectations for urban coastal defence. Additionally since 1994, the Lincolnshire coastal District Councils have employed a rolling five year beach nourishment programme to increase beach levels and provide a stable profile against rising sea levels [8] albeit at ever increasing costs [9]. Over many years, the Netherlands also adopted hard defensive measures in the form of dykes and dune stabilization which has undergone an intensive regeneration programme since 1953 [10].…”

“…By the end of the 20th century increases in 'soft' coastal engineering implementations as part of flood and coastal erosion risk management by lead local authorities has resulted in an increase in marine aggregate dredging by the coastal countries surrounding the North Sea. The UK Lincshore scheme by 2013 has extracted over 19x10 6 tonnes of sand from the seabed over its current 20year project span [9]. This is put into perspective by the larger South Holland sand-motor scheme that has extracted 19.4x10 6 tonnes for coastal management in 2013 alone [14].…”