Coastal Recession
What affect does this have on people and the environment?
What is coastal recession?
• Coastal recession is having an effect on the
coastline of the UK.
• The amount of effect is determined by the land
use.
• If the area suffering from cliff recession is used
for settlement, the effect is greater than if the
cliff recession is affecting farmland, which is seen
to be less important as it is not worth as much
money.
• The effects of coastal recession can be seen all
around the coast of the UK.
What’s happening at Happisburgh?
• One village under threat from this policy is the village of
Happisburgh which has a population of approximately 850.
•
It is one of the fastest eroding areas in the world.
• The area was defended in 1958 with revetments which reduced
the amount of erosion to about 50 cm a year.
•
In 1995 the council stopped
repairing the coastal defences
which caused the rate of
erosion to accelerate.
• Since this time, 25 properties
and the village’s lifeboat
launching station have been
washed away.
What’s happening at Happisburgh?
• The main area of concern is Beach Road which
terminates in the sea.
• The houses were worth £80,000 when the
coast was defended
but are now valued
at £1, even though
their sea view
improves each year.
What’s happening at Happisburgh?
• The government has refused to protect Happisburgh
because it is not cost effective.
• In other words, the village is less valuable than the
cost of the defences to protect it even though it
contains 18 listed buildings including a Grade 1 listed
church which is only 60 m from the cliff and estimated
to be in the sea by 2020.
• The cost of sea defences is
approximately £4 million
for 500m.
What’s happening at Happisburgh?
• However, the district council did defend the area in
2007 with 5,000 tonnes of granite rip-rap at a cost of
£200,000; the local villagers raised a further £40,000
on a website which bought another 1,000 tonnes of
rock.
• This is slowing down the
rate of erosion but there
is no hope for the
residents of Beach Road
whose homes will soon
be in the sea.
COASTAL EROSION AT HAPPISBURGH VIDEO CLIP