Resilient Coasts - Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk

What is Resilient Coasts?

TL;DR? Watch our short video for a whistle-stop tour of the Resilient Coasts project.

Resilient Coasts will create practical tools to help our coastal communities plan for their future.

Over the past five years there has been a rapid increase in named storms and erosion incidents. Resilient Coasts will work with communities in nine pilot locations to help them prepare for the impacts of our changing coast.

Our work alongside communities will help individuals, businesses, and community groups to be actively involved in their future. It includes:

• continuing to help support those communities at the highest risk of erosion,
• helping communities discuss and plan for adapting to climate and coastal change,
• co-creating plans with communities,
• mapping what is at risk,
• investigating alternative technology and engineering practices,
• understanding how the coast is changing,
• looking at funding sources, including a seed fund for communities at risk.

The project will be completed in 2027 and is being led by Coastal Partnership East on behalf of East Suffolk Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council. Resilient Coasts is funded by Defra as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes which is managed by the Environment Agency. The programmes will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.

What are the challenges?

We will work with residents, businesses, industry, government organisations, and landowners to create longer-term plans that mean:

• addressing funding gaps,
• a joined-up approach to coastal issues with infrastructure and industries,
• better tools to work with future generations,
• longer-term plans that mean communities are prepared and safe,
• new technology to provide up to date information in communicating risk,
• new innovative engineering solutions that will work on our dynamic coast.

We will use innovation to find long-lasting resilience solutions for the whole coast. We are gathering evidence to influence policy nationally to make change locally.

Knowing what is at risk

There is a lot we are still learning about how our coast works and how the North Sea is shaping it in the face of rapid coastal change and sea level rise. It is important to know what is at risk to understand how we can help communities to become more resilient.

To understand the impacts of the risk, we need to develop a map of all the “things” we value along our coast, including:

• homes and businesses,
• churches, religious/community buildings and other heritage and culture assets,
• buried infrastructure, such as pipelines and electricity cables,
• roads,
• private water supplies,
• septic tanks,
• land with community value, such as well used footpaths, community playing fields and woodland,
• land boundaries (e.g. gardens),
• schools,
• hospitals/ doctors’ surgeries.

Through the map we will identify how we might help those at risk and the options that are available. This might include identifying land for rollback, supporting planners to find alternative solutions, and beginning to speak to infrastructure providers with key assets at risk.

How do we manage our own assets?

Along with understanding what is at risk, we need to think about how we invest in our own assets. An asset is anything Coastal Partnership East is responsible for, which include navigation markers, groynes, and access ramps. We already monitor, maintain, and repair our coast, but as it continues to change we need to do this as effectively and efficiently as possible.

We are working towards a fully costed asset management plan, which means we will know how much each asset will cost to implement, maintain and decommission. The plan will help us to make decisions about whether we should continue to maintain old defences and alternative solutions should be investigated.

This could include nature-based solutions, like the sandscaping scheme at Bacton and Walcott.

We are also looking at creating a rock stockpile. This would provide temporary defences that can be moved to where they are most needed as the coast changes.

In June 2023, we put out a call to action to see what alternative products are available. We have already engaged with engineering companies, and others, to gather information on new and innovative approaches and materials.

Funding

Currently there is no funding that coastal communities at risk of erosion can access to help them adapt and become more resilient. If they are not eligible for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Grant in Aid, they have no financial help.

Seed fund

We are developing a seed fund for communities to be able to apply for funding towards resilience measures. This will help to give communities independence in their resilience plans. We are developing the mechanisms to invest in a pot of money which will form the basis of this seed fund and allow it to grow.

Infrastructure

We are engaging infrastructure providers so that we can better understand the impact of coastal change on infrastructure assets on our coast. We will be exploring opportunities to work together to mitigate any risks and improve coastal resilience to deliver wider benefits to all.

Working with Communities

We will have conversations with communities at our pilot sites to find out how much is already known about climate change and its impacts, and what to do to prepare for erosion risk.

We will help our communities to learn about climate change and its possible impacts. We will seek to understand how we can help build resilience and what options there are.

Hello Coast

We are developing tools to make conversations more convenient. Hello Coast, an artificial intelligence tool, will allow visitors to find out more about how our coast is changing through realistic conversations at key locations across the Norfolk and Suffolk coast.

Users will be able to have engaging and informative conversations with Hello Coast, finding out more about climate change and its effect on our coast, and how we will need to adapt.

Bringing the coast into the classroom

We will work with young people to help them begin to think about what impacts climate change might have during their lifetime and what actions can be taken to prepare.

To do this we are developing a range of tools including:

• co-creating a selection of workshops and activities to deliver in secondary schools,
• creating a series of videos to show career pathways into the coastal sector.

Policy

An aim of Resilient Coasts is ensure steps towards resilience and adaptation are continued in both our pilot sites and in other locations on our coast. We are looking at ways we can use existing Neighbourhood Plans, Shoreline Management Plans, and Local Plans to see where we need to influence policy to make sure that adaptation and community resilience is at the heart of future coastal planning.

Adaptation plans

The communities along our coast are currently reacting to coastal change and challenges as they happen. They face uncertainty, worry, and distress because they have no firm direction on how to plan ahead, how to think about the future, and how to solve the issues in a positive and controlled way.

For each of our pilot communities, we aim to help them create an adaptation plan of their own, that our councils and partners can support the community to deliver. Each element of Resilient Coasts will feed into the co-creation of these adaptation plans, including:

• identifying land for rollback through risk mapping,
• seed fund,
• integrated infrastructure plan,
• asset management map and plan.

Through the adaptation plans, communities will plan for the future and know what actions they can take when a property is at erosion risk and resources are available to help.

What's next?

Following Resilient Coasts, we have a vision to use the tools developed to help make adaptation plans across the Norfolk and Suffolk coast. There are 2,500 homes in Norfolk and Suffolk at risk from erosion. It is important to put plans in place now to be prepared for the future.

Coastal challenges - a community voice

The video below discusses some of the challenges faced by our coastal communities. Lucy Ansbro, a resident of Thorpeness, talks about how she has been affected.

How to get involved

If you have a question or suggestion, please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

How our project is testing innovation:

We are testing 5 resilience actions as part of the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme:

• Nature based solutions
• Community infrastructure resilience
• Monitoring and management of local assets
• Minimise damages and disruption to small and medium sized businesses
• Community and voluntary sector action to be better prepared and recover more quickly

Who are we?

Coastal Partnership East is an innovative approach to managing the coast between Holkham in North Norfolk and Landguard Point in Felixstowe, bringing together the coastal management resources and expertise from Great Yarmouth Borough Council, North Norfolk District Council, and East Suffolk Council. Coastal Partnership East works in partnership with the Environment Agency, the Water Management Alliance, coast and estuary community partnerships and others along the 173km of coast in Norfolk and Suffolk.

We are also working with Babergh District Council, with Shotley as one of the locations in the pilot.

Who is working with us

AECOM, Anglian Water, Babergh District Council, Balfour Beatty, Broadland Futures Initiative, Coastal Partners Solent, Corton Parish Council, Grantham Research Institute, GroundWork, Hemsby Parish Council, Icarus, Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group (LGA SIG), London School of Economics, Marsh, Norfolk Coast Forum, Pakefield Community Steering Group, Save Hemsby Coastline Community Group, Shotley Parish Council, Southwold to Walberswick Board, Suffolk Coast Forum, The Crown Estate, Thorpeness Coastal Futures, Tyndall Centre/University of East Anglia, Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance