Useful Links

The Environment Agency (EA) was established in 1996 to protect and improve the environment. It is an executive, non-departmental public body, sponsored by Defra. With more than 10,000 employees in offices across the country, it has responsibility for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and sea. Other responsibilities include the regulation of major industry and waste, treatment of contaminated land, water quality and resources, fisheries, inland river, estuary and harbour navigations, conservation and ecology.

coastalmonitoring.org is the website for the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes of England. The Network comprises six Regional Programmes, collecting coastal monitoring data in a co-ordinated and systematic manner to serve the needs of coastal engineering and management. The website also hosts data for The Welsh Coastal Monitoring Centre.

Founded in 2012, Coastal Partners is a partnership between four councils (Havant, Portsmouth, Gosport and Fareham) who manage 162km of Hampshire’s coastline. The highly skilled team of coastal engineers and officers lead on coastal issues, such as managing flooding and erosion risk, plan design and manage construction of new coastal defence schemes and inspect, manage and maintain existing coastal assets whilst planning for the future.

A BCP Council website dedicated to recording and describing FCERM projects, strategies and plans along the coastline of Poole and Christchurch Bays, Dorset – from and including Poole Harbour, to Bournemouth, Christchurch Harbour, Hengistbury Head, Mudeford Spit, to the BCP boundary at Highcliffe Beach.

The Dorset Coast Forum (DCF) is an independent strategic coastal partnership, which looks at the long term, broad-scale issues facing the Dorset coast and its inshore waters. The overriding aim of the Forum is to promote the social, economic and environmental benefits of the Dorset coast and the surrounding seas.

The Solent Forum was established in December 1992, to develop a greater understanding among the many local and harbour authorities, user groups, marine businesses and agencies involved in planning and management in the Solent area, and to assist and influence them in carrying out their functions. 

The Coastal Partnerships Network (CPN) is made up of 55 organisations; it exists to encourage the exchange of information and debate between Coastal Partnerships and to establish links with other coastal stakeholders. It seeks to offer increased opportunities for learning, collaboration and influence, strengthening and supporting Coastal Partnerships and encouraging stronger representation of the value of their work.

LiCCo (2011-2014) was a cross-channel project helping coastal communities to better understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise and erosion on their coastline. Partner organisations from Devon, Dorset and Normandy worked together on the project, led by the Environment Agency. The project covered a period of three and a half years, from April 2011 to September 2014; all materials and resources produced during that time remain online at the time of writing (Sept 2021).

The Arch-Manche project demonstrates how under-used coastal indicators including archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data along with historical and artistic resources can be applied as tools to inform long term patterns of coastal change.

Significant archaeological sites along our sinuous coast and on the foreshores of our tidal estuaries are continually eroded by winds, waves and tidal scour. CITiZAN (2014-ongoing) is the first systematic national response to this threat.

The Crown Estate manages the long-term sustainable use of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland on the UK seabed, including offshore energy, marine planning, aggregates, cables and pipelines. They also manage around half of the foreshore, the land between mean high and mean low water mark, around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) licenses, regulates and plans marine activities in the seas around England so that they’re carried out in a sustainable way. MMO is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by Defra – the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.