Why the scheme was needed:
● Medmerry (West Sussex) → largest managed coastal realignment scheme in Europe
○ Environment Agency (EA) considered area to the west of Selsey (West Sussex) to be at a high risk
of flooding due to climate change
● Shingle ridge was the only form of protection from the sea
● From 1990s → beach reprofiling took place every winter at £200,000 every year , highly unsustainable
○ If breached → 348 properties , water treatment plant, holiday homes/rental cottages and main
road between Chichester and Selsey would be flooded
○ Last breach was in 2008 → £5 million of damage
Strategy which was used:
● Work to realign coast began in 2011 and finished in 2014
● Managed retreat was achieved by:
○ Building new embankment → 2 km inland from shore, using clay from with the area
■ Enclosed future intertidal area
■ Protected properties behind it
● Embankment = a wall/bank of earth/stone , built to prevent a river flooding an area
○ Behind the embankment, a channel was built along the whole length to collect draining water
○ Rock armour placed on seaward edges of
embankment
■ Used 60,000 tonnes of hard rock (from
Norway)
○ After embankment and rock armour → 110
metre breach was made in the shingle bank
■ To allow sea to flood the land
■ Create a new intertidal area
