Realigning Coastal Defences

The erosion of the UK's coastline is increasing risks and posing new challenges for flood management.

Traditional approaches such as the construction of sea walls offer a level of protection against flooding, but do not prevent the erosion of the shore in front - a vital asset to the UK's biodiversity.

Managed realignment offers a long term, sustainable coastal defence solution.

Applied properly, it can reduce the loss of natural habitats, offer opportunities for habitat enhancement and use fewer resources than 'hard' coastal defences, including the potential for re-use of materials extracted from a site during construction.

A recent Environment Agency study indicated that such schemes could reduce the cost of coastal defence by as much as £4,600 a metre, yet uptake remains slow.

CIRIA's new project Design issues for managed realignment aims to provide a comprehensive technical good practice guide aimed at coastal engineers that will encourage more sustainable coastal defence construction.

This will provide generic guidance on designing managed realignment schemes in the UK and will highlight all the related technical and practical issues that should be considered during the design of such schemes.

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