The United Kingdom is surrounded by the sea. As such its coasts and estuaries are geographically, economically, socially, and militarily important to the nation’s character, infrastructure, growth, and development.
How the UK manages its coasts and estuaries will be critical in the face of a changing political complexion, climate change, socioeconomic upheaval, and of course geological effects such as erosion. Of the UK’s 17,380 kilometre coastline, 3,008 km is suffering erosion and an additional 3,185 km is protected by engineering structures.
“A complex interaction of physical factors (sea-level change, geomorphology, storminess, waves, tides, near shore current) and human factors (land reclamation, river regulation works, unregulated dredging, etc.) are shaping the UK coastline through the dynamic process of erosion and accretion,” researchers explain in the journal Interdisciplinary Environmental Review.
It is important that they have now reviewed coastal and estuarine management practices with a view to feeding back new understanding to the stakeholders.
Oyedotun, T.D.T. (2018) ‘Coastal and estuarine management in the UK: review and overview of perspectives’, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.103–110.