Blackwater Estuary

Question 1

Where is the Blackwater Estuary?

Answer 1

Essex coastline

Question 2

What is the erosion rate here?

Answer 2

0.3-1m per year

Question 3

Why is the area at risk of flooding?

Answer 3

Sea level rising and south england sinking relative to the sea.

Question 4

What schemes are in place here?

Answer 4

Some hard engineering but becoming too expensive to maintain, so soft engineering is being implemented.

Question 5

What soft engineering is being implemented?

Answer 5

Coastal realignment

Beach nourishment- Mersea Island.

Marsh Stabilisation

Question 6

What was involved in the coastal realignment?

Answer 6

breaching sea walls at 4 locations to encourage formation of marshland.

Tollesbury fleet- 21 hectares of farmland flooded.

Question 7

Why is this soft engineering more sustainable than hard engineering?

Answer 7

More sustainable in the long term. - repairing sea wall at Orphlands would cost 600,000 - would only last 20 years. 40 acres of marshland would cost the same and would be self-repairing.

Created marshland provides a larger habitat for wildlife