How fast is the coast changing now?
The tremendous diversity of our coast means that erosion rates vary significantly from area to area. Some parts of the coast are eroding faster than others. To put things into context, across England and Wales, about 28 per cent of our coastline is subject to erosion of more than 10 centimetres per year, but rates vary according to location, sometimes reaching an average of as much as 1.8 metres per year. In reality, coastal erosion is not always gradual, and can occur through events such as landslips where many metres of land may be lost once every five or ten years. Rates of erosion are expected to increase by the end of this century because of increasing storms and rising sea levels, brought about by climate change. Predicting these rates as accurately as possible is, of course, extremely important – not only for the people living in our coastal communities, but also for the EA in our work managing the coast.
