EA Chair says collaboration needed to protect local economies and nature on the coast
EA Chair Alan Lovell delivers a speech at the annual Coastal Futures Conference
It’s great to be here in this city made global by the Tidal Thames; braved centuries of seafaring trade. That river and its tide of course bring threats too. The city is visited by the North Sea twice a day and it can be tough. Our now collective job is to ensure that it’s not as destructive as on occasions it could be.
This weekend, we mark 70 years since the horrifying East Coast Surge of 1953. My uncle Charlie was farming on Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary in 1953, and I remember vividly him talking about the desperate measures to bring people and some animals to safety, and subsequently losing all his agricultural equipment.
That disaster of course led to many developments in flood protection, including the construction of the Thames Barrier. I became Chief Executive of Costain, the main contractor for the Thames Barrier, in 1995, about 10 years after it was built, and we were certainly very proud of the work that it was doing. It helps to protect around 125 square kilometres of land and over £320 billion of property and infrastructure.
Opened in 1984, it’s been raised in anger 207 times, so about 5 and a half times a year. It was originally envisaged to be just once a year so that gives some illustration of the change, and not surprisingly it’s been on a rising, although not uniform, trend.
Although the Barrier was built to hold back storm surges, since the 1990s increasingly intense rainfall events have also seen it raised at low tide on several occasions to create space for water that’s arrived from the other direction.
We are constantly surveying the future, but we are reasonably confident that this Barrier will continue to provide protection until at least 2070, but we need to think creatively about how we can transform the estuary edges. We want Londoners to feel secure, to enjoy their river, and without being cut off from the river that makes London what it is.
The Thames Estuary 2100 Plan sets a long-term approach to managing risk in partnership with communities, developers and place-makers.
It’s that sort of collaborative working which is what the Coastal Futures Conference is all about. It’s clear from recent successes that shared ownership of the risks and recognition of the steps to be taken by the public and private sectors, and by non-government, they can bring about the changes that are needed.
I shall be telling you about some of the big projects that we have engaged in, but also some of the smaller and vital collaboration with parties which make a difference.
According to the UN, more than 600 million people - around 10 percent of the world’s population - live in coastal areas that are less than 10 metres above sea level. On this small-island nation at the north-east edge of the Atlantic Ocean, nearly two thirds of people live within 15 kilometres of the sea and over a third live within 5 kilometres. The risk is obvious.
The coastline itself is never static. Throughout our history land has been lost to the sea and created out of it. Like our Dutch neighbours, we have not always taken the sea’s word as final.
The most productive agricultural land in England is often on land historically claimed from coastal wetlands that, due to soil erosion, is close to, or even below, sea level now.
Since 1900 the UK has seen 16 centimetres of sea level rise and scientists believe we could see a further metre of even more in the next 80 years. And as we all know, higher sea levels create waves which carry greater energy to shore, and by the end of the 21st century, sea level events we currently describe as once a century, may occur every year.
Another statistic to alarm is that about 12 percent of England is on the floodplain and 9,000 kilometres of the coast are at risk of sea flooding, erosion and landslips.
Happily, the Government is on the case. You will be aware the flood plan for the 2015 – 2021 period saw us spend £2.6 million and better protect about 320,000 properties. And in this next stage, from 2021-2027, the government is investing £5.2 billion to create new flood protections, alongside support to help households and businesses get back on their feet more quickly after flooding.
Of this big sum, £1.6 billion is directed towards coastal erosion and sea flooding projects. Very importantly, that spend on big projects is supported by a £40 million regional coastal monitoring programme which monitors evidence on beach levels, coastal habitat, tides and waves. We make all this data publicly available.
The data helps us target investment decisions and also Shoreline Management Plans, which offer a framework for adapting to climate change. Local planning authorities are encouraged to embed Shoreline Management Plan policies in their spatial plans.
This includes making provision for any vulnerable properties and infrastructure that may need to be relocated in the future. This could include supporting roll back of the coastline or development facing the threat of coastal erosion. Earlier this week I was in Lincolnshire and I saw some of the caravan cities, sites of constant negotiation with local authorities, which understandably are looking to support the local economy in the area, whilst we are worried about the medium, or not so medium, term impacts.
We need to work together with coastal communities to learn, and put into practice, the best possible ways to keep them safe and prosperous.
The government is also investing £200 million in a Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme, which includes eight local authority coastal projects.
The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy sets out how the Environment Agency will work in partnership with others - including risk management authorities, partners and communities - towards the ambition of climate resilient coastal communities.
Every year people make around 270 million recreational visits to the English coast. Alongside delicious seafood, picturesque towns and recreational activities, people travel to the seaside simply to enjoy the view and to breathe the air.
England’s national story is a story about our relationship with the coast; a century of air travel has not totally eroded our reliance on ports and estuaries to deliver the things we need.
Many who live on the coast were drawn by employment opportunities. Yet, some coastal towns are now among the most deprived in the country. We need a concerted effort to better protect coastal communities and economies while enhancing the marine environment.
So to summarise, long term prosperity on the coast is vital; preserving England’s precious natural resources is also vital.
No one wants to trade these two priorities off against each other; we need look at the evidence and work in partnership to serve both. It’s partly with that in mind that I am launching the Environment Agency’s latest The State of the Environment report.
Scientific research and analysis underpins everything the Environment Agency does. It helps us to understand and manage the environment effectively.
Our own experts work with leading scientific organisations, universities, and other parts of the Defra group to bring the best knowledge to bear on the environmental problems that we face now and in the future. Our scientific work is published as reports, freely available to all.
Today’s report, produced by our Chief Scientist’s Group, looks at the coastal and marine environment in particular.
It covers the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems, caused by a number of pressures such as climate change, overfishing and chemical pollution. And it tells a clear story of both challenge and opportunity.
We know that a healthy marine environment provides flood and coastal protection, nutrient and carbon absorption; it improves water quality, enhances biodiversity and provides food as well as health and well-being benefits from recreation.
Our report shows evidence that long term, human activities have changed water temperature, acidity, salinity, sea level and degraded coastal and marine ecosystems.
For instance, salt marshes. England’s salt marshes store the carbon equivalent to nearly 40 million people’s annual domestic emissions.
Salt marshes provide flood protection to around 24,000 properties in suburban areas and 17,000 properties in urban areas in the UK. We can’t afford to lose these benefits, but an estimated 85 percent of salt marsh has already been lost since the 1800s.
We are working with many partners – including some of you in this room - to address this through our habitat compensation and restoration programme, but we need to accelerate that work.
So a small step in the right direction has been made. The latest mapped extent of salt marsh in England is just over 35,500 hectares.
This is an overall increase of 7 percent compared with figures from 2006 to 2009. Around 37 percent of the increase is as a result of flood management schemes and habitat creation. All this area is dear to our heart.
The Environment Agency is leading a partnership initiative, Restoring Meadow Marsh and Reef, to restore at least 15 percent of priority estuarine and coastal habitats by 2043.
This will build on the existing investment of £120 million in the next five years to compensate for habitat loss due to coastal squeeze and the development of sea defences.
So we are doing a lot. But nevertheless, our report raises some concerning issues, one of these is about pollution and the impact of storm overflows along the coast. Increased frequency of storms increases the transport of pollutants and untreated waste-water into the sea from storm overflows and diffuse pollution from agricultural land.
An initial assessments of levels of persistent, bio accumulative and toxic chemicals - carried out in 2019 – showed, in blue mussels, harbour porpoise and dab, a sort of flat fish, levels of at least one of the four substances tested exceeded toxic effect thresholds in all three species.
As I’m sure you are all aware, only 14 percent of England’s rivers are of ‘good’ ecological status - as defined in the Water Framework Directive.
Nobody is going to say that is remotely acceptable. And, 0 percent are classed as of good chemical status (though I might say in that context this is down from 97 percent, and this change is not due to degradation but due to severe tightening of classifications which is designed to shine light on a very important area which we need to do something about).
The Environment Agency’s updated River Basin Management and Flood Risk Management Plans, launched in 2022, include the local actions that government, regulators, the water sector, and other partners, and we ourselves need to deliver to protect the water environment from catchment to coast over the next five years.
It also says that more than £5 billion of investment over the next five years will enhance and limit further deterioration of England’s waters, giving us increased resilience to the impacts of climate change.
One other small but important project that we are working on too help us with estuarine and coastal recovery, the Environment Agency is investing £1.8 million over the next 3 years in Championing Coastal Coordination - 20 projects will receive funding this year.
These are innovative projects mixing citizen science, local on-the-ground restoration and large-scale work to bring a more coordinated approach to coastal management.
At one level, this is a drop in the ocean, but we hope what we learn from this innovation will enable us to join with others in scaling up projects and programmes that champion coastal resilience.
Please come and talk to our team at our stall here at the conference about the work we’re doing in this field and whether you’d like to be involved in it.
Happily, bathing water quality at beaches and resorts has shown enormous improvements in recent decades. The latest bathing water results for England show 97.1 percent of bathing waters were in decent standards following testing at over 400 designated sites.
But, even with these excellent results, we still need the public to be aware of the risks and to make informed choices. We do encourage people to check bathing water quality on the Environment Agency’s Swimfo website before going swimming.
Before I go, I would like to say something about winter flooding as it is so topical at the moment.
In the last month, we have been dealing with the real impacts of more extreme weather. I recently visited the Somerset Levels where I saw the Environment Agency’s great work - temporary barriers and pumps operating there and along the River Severn.
This is my first winter in the EA and I must say I am extremely impressed by the fantastic work both of our staff and of partners. We estimate that 138 properties are were flooded in the serious flooding 10 days ago which is too many. But set that against the fact that our estimate is that well over 5,000 properties have been protected in the West Midlands, in the Southwest and along the Thames, by the work that has been done over the last 10 years.
We hesitate to give that relatively good statistic of the work done with still a month of winter left to go. And we need to keep reminding people that flood defences can’t provide 100 percent protection, so it’s vital that we all sign up for free flood warnings and take it seriously.
I began this speech talking about the Thames Barrier – one of several protecting the people from the North Sea. I’ve also been to the Ipswich Barrier and on Monday, I visited the Boston Barrier, which protects over 14,000 homes and businesses. It was built after 800 properties were flooded in the 2013 tidal surge – a fantastic example of how engineering can increase the security and prosperity of those living on the coast.
As I have mentioned today, the benefits of working with nature not only include flood and coastal protection, but also nutrient and carbon absorption; improved water quality, enhanced nature, and food as well as health and well-being benefits from recreation.
If coastal communities are to thrive, we need to collect and share evidence of what is happening on the coast and work together to enhance both resilience and the marine environment.
The Environment Agency is proud to sponsor of the Coastal Futures Conference 2023.
We are delighted to be involved with it and with you all, and I look forward to our continued collaboration in the challenging, and rewarding, years to come.