Soft Engineering- Managed Retreat; Essex Marshes Coastal Realignment Flashcards
Why is coastal management needed?
The Blackwater Estuary threatened by coastal squeeze due to sea level rise..
What is the Blackwater Estuary?
One of the largest estuaries in east Anglia.
Covers 4400 hectares of land.
What is happening along the Essex Coast?
Sea level rising by 6mm per year as a result of global warming and settling of the land mass in south due to isostatic readjustment.
What is coastal squeeze the result of?
The sea rising over the salt marshes being pinned against sea wall - leading to deeper water more erosion.
What happened at Abbotts Hall Farm in October 2002?
The sea wall was deliberately breached.
Allowing salt water back onto land - sea wall reclaimed this land 300 years ago.
What else has been constructed at Abbotts Hall Farm to protect land?
2 counter walls at either end of site.
Wooden - ecofriendly.
What is happening land else where because of the sea walls?
Land rising gently away from sea wall serving as a natural check to incoming tide without man-made sea defences.
In future what else is being done to reduce erosion and encourage deposition?
Develop more saltmarshes using wooden fences- regulate tidal flow.
Economic benefits from scheme?
3
Reduced pressure on sea - less maintenance cost.
Low capital, maintenance costs.
Saved 500,000 in sea defences.
Environmental benefits from scheme?
2
Boosted habitats for birds/fish - won awards from RSPB.
Site acts as natural flood defence.
How does the site act as a natural flood defence?
Dissipates wave energy.
Reduces effects of sea level rise and storms.
Was the scheme successful?
Prior to scheme all sites were eroding.
Now.
Vast majority are stabilised as vegetation traps more sediment.
