With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes’ stating in Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers (2001), that they believe that it is likely warming in the 20th Century has contributed to sea level rise, the ensuing effects of this still much argued about process are contentious not only in the origins of the rise, but the method that mankind’s planet stewardship needs to take to tackle the problem.
Cornwall and the Isles Of Scilly, like the rest of the United Kingdom, has to manage this geomorphic, sociologic, economic and ecological change holistically as many of stakeholders in the Cornish environment require the sustainable future for the Cornish coastline The attitude towards this has to distance between Conservation and Preservation. Preserving a fossilised and constantly degrading “wall against the tide”, places unnecessary demands on an already damaged planet. With the expected continuation and possible acceleration of ocean advance (I Sample 04.02.2008), true conservation appears to be the acceptance of change and the planning around it.
In current UK initiatives such as Shoreline Management Plans, policies must recognise that management for change is sustainable management, rather than fight against it.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).(2001), Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers, An Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, 2001, London
Sample I. (04.02.2008). Sea level rise doubles in 150 years, The Guardian, November 25th 2005, Guardian Unlimited, 2008, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/25/frontpagenews.research
SEA LEVEL RISE IN CORNWALL
In the State of the Cornish Environment (2002), the Centre for Climate Change Impact Forecasting (C-CLIF) stated that it anticipates that in 2050 Cornwall can expect sea-level rises of around 0.2-0.8m (based on mean water expansion by warming of the ocean water temperature).
Many of the figures floating around the scientific world currently place this as quite a conservative estimate. In Dinyar Godrejs book Climate Change (2001), he has suggested that adding the increased levels by ice sheet depletion could raise that level considerably. Indeed, in other parts of the UK the issue of sea level rise is so immediate, and so contentious, that there are currently considered plans to build a second Thames Barrier (LTS, 01.02.2008) replacing the first Thames Barrier, built to prevent increasing tidal flooding in 1974 (EA1, 01.02.2008).
The small peninsular of Cornwall and the Isles Of Scilly has a population of 506,100 (established in 2002), and out of the top ten populated towns, five are found on the coast (Guide Cornwall 01.02.2008) There are also many small fishing villages and sea-side resorts. In an area with such a coastal community the economic loss from sea level rise and damage from intensified storms to property, the loss of space, the cost of repairing and the resettling of property both private and public, would stretch into millions of pounds. Cheap and affordable housing for Cornwalls youth and low earners, that is built in susceptible to flooding low lying areas, would not only be a loss to the affordable home market, but a loss to the younger populations housing availability that is vital for keeping the youth in Cornwall to maintain the Cornish economic infrastructure. Cornwalls main industry tourism may with the increased temperatures of climate change be boosted. But, competition between developments allowing for this growth and the resettling of current tourist facilities, against the local needs, could develop into arguments over land use, land ownership and Governmental ruling.
Issues of Sea Level Rise are not totally directed at the coastal fringe. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in their 2001 report: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability;
“settlements with little economic diversification and where a high percentage of incomes derive from climate sensitive industries (agriculture, fishing etc.) are more vulnerable than diversified settlements”. (page 13, paragraph 3.)
Cornwall has a huge investment in its coastal resource where it provides work in various forms of fishing, tourism and recreational uses. Biological and geomorphic changes resulting from both sea level rise and sea temperature warming could unbalance the Cornish economic infrastructure. The resulting shift in occupations and settlement in a place such as Cornwall, an area where unemployment rates are far higher than the rest of the South west region and higher than the UK and where earnings are repeatedly lower than the rest of the UK (S. Burley 1991), could place huge demands on the resource lacking province. Plus, by considering the Diaspora from other parts of the world where climate change has caused more severe environmental changes, the burden on the Cornish economy and infrastructure, evident with reports such as Mark Eastons NHS ‘not ready for immigration’ (2008) might spark cultural and sociological issues. Issues might further be exasperated when you factor in the loss of heritage, both archaeological and historic.
Another more concerning threat, is the loss to agricultural and livestock land for farming. As a hinterland with a large rural population, threats to farmland in a proximity to larger urban areas in the shape of increased development and anti-social influences known as urban fringe pressures (Defra1, 2006), not only forms an increase in conflict with urban/rural issues, but also a net loss in farmland availability. There is also to be considered the loss in coastal and estuarine bordering farm land directly from sea level increases. This threat becomes more complex when you consider temperature and salinity effects to crop production. With the UK farming industry netting £2.54 billion in 2007 (Defra2 2008) with farming in Cornwall being one of the main remaining Cornish industries, the loss to the economy for both Cornwall and Britain, not to mention the loss in food production, would be a loss in vital resources.
Biodiversity and habitat loss is another fact of sea level rise. Sea surface temperature increase will have an effect by increasing water levels, but also change the dynamics of currents, thus the biological movement within the ocean bringing in new species, and pushing out others (MCS 2006). Particularly vulnerable habitats are those of inter-tidal ecosystems, estuarine habitats and sand dune habitats.
Special Protected Areas (SPA), are protected both in international and national legislation and local planning policies such as Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. However, the day to day management and maintenance of these areas is trusted to local council offices and NGO’s such as the National Trust. Recently, Paul Brown in The Guardian (April 28 2005) reported on the Trusts concerns over suspected losses of 60% of its managed UK coastline this century. Biologically, Cornwall has a variety of unique and rare coastal plant species like Isoetes histrix (Land Quillwort) and Corrigiola litoralis (Strapwort), plus animal species such as Luperina nickerlii gueneei (Sandhill rustic moth) and Lacerta agilis (Sand lizard). All except L. agilis are found in one spot in Cornwall (L Salter 2006 : EN unknown), whilst L. agilis is found uniquely in another Cornish coastal site (CCC 2000). So, Q.E.D is the loss to the natural environment in Cornwall and the Isles Of Scilly (which has one RAMSAR site and various ground nesting sea birds) and the threats to biodiversity from the rising ocean, made more contentious considering the increasing demand and competition for decreasing space.
In 1996 the European Commission began The European Unions (EU) Demonstration Program on Integrated Coastal zone Management (ICZM) to gather technical support on sustainable coastal zone management, and begin the process of planning in coastal zone management. This was part of the EU communities’ agreement to Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit). By May 2002, ICZM was implemented in the UK and other EU member states. By 14 April 2004, the UK through the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published ICZM in the UK: a stocktake - final report. Within this report it was stated;
“Recommendations, monitoring, research and management review procedures are created to ensure that the Shoreline Management Plan is carried into the future as a working document”.
(page 82, paragraph 2.)
The UK therefore installs its obligations to ICZM in these, the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP).
Defra and the National Assembly for Wales (NAW), together with the Environment Agency (EA), English Nature, now Natural England, (NE) and other local authorities began the introduction of SMPs since around 1997 (Defra2 03.02.2008). A non-statutory implement, SMPs are developed to enable long term policies that sustainable shoreline management (G Lymbery 05.02.2008 : EA2 03.02.2008). Defra, NE, EA etc. have prepared guidance for forming SMPs, and this forms the management of the various coastal zones.
The SMP protocols for Coastal Defence work along the formulas of: Fight in the way of sea defence improvement and an increase of establishing new defences further from the coast, or retreat by doing nothing and allowing the coastal and into land geomorphic change.
If the decision is made to fight, increase and develop the in-situ defences, or become more aggressive and advance into the sea line, this almost King Canute like method would require massive injections of aggregates to combat the sea advance. As the coast is the zone that would need protecting, the main source to find the majority of aggregates for the work, would come from the ocean bed. A large amount of this could be reclaimed (CIRA 2004), but the process of sediment removal has be criticised in reports such as English Heritages Marine Aggregate Dredging and the Historic Environment (2003), RC Newell et al, Impacts of Marine Aggregate Dredging on Benthic Macro fauna of the South Coast of the United Kingdom (2004), Hitchcock DR & Bell S’s Physical impacts of marine aggregate dredging on seabed resources in coastal deposits (2004) and Marinet in MARINET's Comments on UK Licence Applications (03.02.2008).
Many of these suggest only short term and isolated problems, but with the intensified and long term necessity for maintainance through increased wave power damage by increased water levels (Duxbury A.C et al 2000), the cost of managing a fossilized and constantly degrading barrier both environmentally and economically would add to the damage of sea level rise.
If the approach was taken to build new barriers a distance back from the ocean, the need for total and in-depth mapping of weathering processes, sediment movement, geographic and topographic formations, plus and understanding of bathology, that, with the unpredictability of hydrological changes associated with Climate and Sea level Change (T Palmer 04.02.2008), could be effort wasted. It is of course, only a matter of time before the second line of defence, becomes the first line.
The final method the SMP offers is the Retreat. Managed retreat is the concept of allowing change. In The effect of sea-level rise on coastal geomorphology (2004) Stephen Crooks writes about the need to manage space, and how Sea Level Rise will allow geomorphology to determine not only the quality and quantity of habitats, but also the nature as an ecosystem function, showing vulnerability and loss to the natural and man made environment. As the sea moves in, land will become flooded, which intern, becomes habitats. In the Netherlands, H. Duels investigation into Cyclic Floodplain Rejuvenation as a river management protection and enhancement (unknown) showed excellent results for the reestablishment of biodiversity in such areas. In the UK, the RSPB recently began plans to flood part of Essex to re-establish habitats to provide ecosystems for protected endangered birds (D Adam 05.02.2008) such as Botaurus stellaris (Bittern), Gavia arctica (Black Throat diver) and Larus argentatus (Herring Gull) (UKBAP 2008). This project follows similar projects in Denmark and Germany. The cost to the RSPB? £12million.
The Duchy of Cornwall is currently in the process of forming its first SMP (CCC2 05.02.2008). If the Duchy wants to optimise the SMP process, it will have to administer a totalitariasm approach to it natural environment and social environment needs. Instigating adaptive measures requires refocusing the anthropogenic activities to adapt around nature and not against it as true sustainability is only possible in this way.
”Diversity is perhaps the Duchy’s greatest strength - and its continuation is one of the most important things we can hand on to the next generation.”
HRH Prince of Wales, Duke of the Duchy of Cornwall
References
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