Resilience of Anthropocene Coasts and Communities (RACC)

This is a holding page until we launch our standalone site later in 2024...

Main academic partners: Queen Mary University of London, University of Glasgow, University of Bradford, King's College London, University of Sunderland.

Summary

RACC addresses the interlinked risks of climate change, coastal flooding/erosion, and the UK’s historic waste legacy on coastal community and ecosystem resilience. Coastal flooding and erosion will accelerate under climate change. Our past industrialisation has left a pollution legacy of over 1,700 historic coastal landfills and 3,000 hectares of contaminated land also at risk from coastal flooding and/or erosion (CCC 2018; POST 2021). By 2100 the number of people exposed to coastal floods and erosion, and therefore legacy coastal waste, will increase significantly and almost half legacy waste sites are within 100m of environmentally sensitive areas such as protected wetlands or bathing waters (Brand et al. 2018). 

Many sites are already eroding, releasing pollution, plastics, asbestos and/or medical waste into our coastal environments with limited understanding of pollution risk to people or the marine environment. Without intervention one in 10 could erode by 2055. Many UK coastal landfills are at increasing future risk: e.g., at Lyme Regis, the Spittles Lane landfill contains 50,000 tonnes of waste on an eroding cliff top and will ‘almost certainly erode’ releasing material to the beach without intervention (Nicholls et al. 2021).

How we manage the intergenerational burden of our past coastal waste disposal and its accelerated risk to society and ecosystems in a changing climate is a ‘burning imperative’ (Environment Agency 2022). In a “call to arms” coastal Local Authorities have identified the enormity of this problem with almost 50% reporting waste sites eroding, or ‘at risk’. Yet we do not have sufficient evidence to: 1) build robust business cases to manage (by defending, remediating or ‘letting alone’) these sites, 2) inform sustainable coastal management decision-making (Shoreline Management Plans) that takes account of the presence of waste and 3) engage and support those communities who will live with these decisions.

Working in 3 ‘at-risk’ UK geographic areas we will:

• Investigate the risk of waste and pollution release under more severe flooding and coastal erosion scenarios.
• Assess the harm this pollution will do to coastal environments and adjacent communities.
• Increase collaboration between a range of stakeholders to understand the different kinds of environmental and social challenges involved.
• Facilitate inclusive debate on future efforts to manage these risks using established methods and arts-based activities to reach new audiences.
• Work with communities and policy makers to explore and co-develop policy options and practical actions that will build resilience, and identify potential co-benefits for people and place.
• Ensure the project’s approach, methods and key findings for coastal resilience measures can be scaled across the UK.

Assessing the range of risks associated with coastal waste release and building an inclusive and practical ‘toolkit’ of responses will benefit: 1) organisations who manage the coast, conserve and protect people and habitats, and 2) landowners and communities who use and appreciate the coastal environment for its amenities and cultural value. 

We have designed a novel “Community Atlas” to share information, conclusions, and arts outputs with these groups, and that allows citizens to upload their own information and stories about coastal change.

RACC has been co-conceived with our Project Partners through collaboration with; 1) Environment Agency, local authorities, and coastal partnerships to identify research needs, 2) Climate Change Committee and Policy Connect to understand policy gaps and 3) engagement with communities through arts-science initiatives.

 

References

Brand, JH, Spencer KL, O’Shea FT, Lindsay JE (2018) Potential pollution risks of historic landfills on low‐lying coasts and estuaries. WIREs Water, 5, 1264.

Committee on Climate Change (2018) Managing the coast in a changing climate. CCC, London.

Environment Agency (2022) Regulatory considerations of climate change impacts and adaptation for waste deposit, landfill and land contamination - Synthesis Report. WSP 70091084, London.

Nicholls RJ, Beaven RP, Stringfellow A, Monfort D, Le Cozannet G, Wahl T, Gebert J, Wadey M, Arns A, Spencer KL, Reinhart D, Heimovaara T, Santos VM, Enríquez AR, Cope S (2021) Coastal Landfills and Rising Sea Levels: A Challenge for the 21st Century. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 10.3389/fmars.2021.710342

Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (2021) Coastal Management, POSTNOTE 647, The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, London.