Coastal strategies and schemes

Coastal Strategies

Coastal strategies consider the coastal management options available for protecting a stretch of coastline. The key objective of a strategy is to recommend options to manage erosion and coastal flood risk which are sustainable in the longer-term. That is to say that the proposed options are economically, socially and environmentally acceptable within Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) policy and other constraints.

The strategy management options recommended must:

• Reduce the risk to life
• Defend residential and commercial property
• Protect existing infrastructure
• Protect, and if possible enhance, the well- being of the population
• Protect, and if possible enhance, biodiversity, cultural heritage and landscape

The Gorleston to Lowestoft Coastal Strategy is currently underway in Suffolk.

Coastal Schemes

Coastal schemes are the construction projects that you see along the shoreline, and may be implemented as an outcome from a coastal strategy.

The schemes can be minor and completed in a few weeks, or they can be major engineering operations which require years of planning, investigations and consultation.

Coastal schemes can include building seawalls, groynes, breakwaters or beach recycling.