[Science] Communities in East Anglia are deciding whether to abandon their towns – AI

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[Science] Communities in East Anglia are deciding whether to abandon their towns – AI


By Adam Vaughan Coasts are in retreat across East Anglia, including here at Happisburgh in NorfolkJason Bye for New Scientist JANE HAMILTON stands next to a model of Dunwich in Suffolk, UK, the “lost city” that was once one of England’s largest ports, but has been largely swallowed by the sea after storms in the 13th and 14th century and years of erosion. She accepts that people will have to retreat in the face of a warming world and rising seas. “It’s natural. It’s like people dying, it does happen,” she says. As a resident of the remaining village, that doesn’t mean she wants to stand back and let it happen. “It’s human nature to preserve your community,” says Hamilton. “I don’t accept: ‘That’s fine, it’s all going to fall in the sea, we’ll all move inland.’” Dunwich was once the capital of East Anglia. It is now a small hamlet as the harbour and most of the town have fallen into the sea. Jane Hamilton in the local museumJason Bye for New Scientist Advertisement Dunwich is one of several communities in East Anglia, an area on England’s east coast, that must decide whether to promote a “managed retreat” inland or to hold the line. In a recent article in Science, researchers argued that adaptation to climate change means, in some places, “the question is no longer if retreat will occur but how, where, and why”. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts warming will bring a sea level rise of up to a metre by 2100, and more if the Antarctic ice sheet begins its collapse this century. In England, the Environment Agency (EA) has said sea level rise can’t be fought with “limitlessly high walls and barriers” alone. Juliet Blaxland, who lives a few kilometres up the coast from Dunwich near the crumbling cliffs of Easton Bavents, recognises the need to adapt. “In nature, the most successful animals are not necessarily the biggest and fastest, but the most adaptable to change,” she says. Historically, around a metre of coast was lost each year here, but recently, it has been around 3 metres annually, she says. Juliet Blaxland stands in front of her home which she expects to be consumed by the sea in the next few years.Jason Bye for New Scientist While Blaxland accepts that her home probably has just a few more years left, neighbouring buildings reveal contrasting attitudes towards coastal erosion. One is the former house of Peter Boggis, dubbed King Canute for building his own coastal defences by the cliffs, in defiance of authorities. Down the road, a pair of holiday homes, the Watch Houses, were built with steel frames so they can be easily moved inland by crane. Juliet Blaxland’s home from another angleJason Bye for New Scientist In the past, the UK government offered money to help people relocate, as well as assisting with planning issues around new homes for them, but no such schemes are active today. “It’s human nature to preserve your community. I don’t accept: ‘That’s fine, it’s going to fall in the sea’” “We are very much responding to the climate emergency,” says Julie Foley of the EA. Its policy is to defend the majority of England’s coastline, and moving people in response to climate change is the exception, she says. The EA recently finished the £70 million Ipswich Tidal Barrier in Suffolk, a large “hold the line” defence. More hardware and engineering like this will be needed in the region, says Mark Johnson of the EA, such as an increase in the height of beaches in Norfolk to help protect Bacton Gas Terminal. The newly installed flood barrier at Ipswich Docks.Jason Bye for New Scientist David Ritchie of East Suffolk Council says managed retreat can be positive, pointing to the Benacre Estate, just north of Easton Bavents, where there are plans to flood 100 hectares with seawater to create an intertidal habitat. In Shotley, near Ipswich, Richard Wrinch stands on the doorstep of his farmhouse, overlooking a glorious vista of fields bordering the river Orwell that flooded during a 2013 storm surge. The farmer has been talking with the EA and others for more than a decade about giving up land to the sea. “I have no direct problem with a managed retreat, because that’s what humanity has done for millennia,” says Wrinch. What is missing is clarity from authorities, he says. Richard Wrinch’s farm contains an ancient river wall which has been breached during very high tides and is likely to be part of a future flood plan.Jason Bye for New Scientist A glimpse of a possible future for Wrinch lies across the county border in Essex. At Fingringhoe Wick nature reserve, the sea wall was deliberately breached in 2015, so seawater now covers 22 hectares of former farmland. Mark Iley of the Essex Wildlife Trust, which worked with the EA on the scheme, says losing hard-won land is “very controversial”, but that the project has been a roaring success for both human and avian visitors. Fingringhoe Nature Reserve where the wall of the tidal River Colne was breached to create a new wetlandJason Bye for New Scientist The motivation was to create salt marsh habitat, which is fast disappearing throughout England. However, the approach could be applied elsewhere if the two challenges – finding funding and willing landowners – are overcome, says Merle Leeds of the EA. More on these topics: environment climate change

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