Shoreline Management Plans and the natural environment
Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) are developed with a rigorous assessment of the positive and negative environmental implications of different management options along the coast. This includes implications for
- Biodiversity (wildlife and habitats)
- Human health and wellbeing
- Soil, air and water quality
- Landscape and amenity
- Cultural heritage and the historic environment
- Climate change
- the relationship between these
A Strategic Environmental Assessment has been completed for all SMPs. This considers the broad range of potential impacts such as on marine protected sites and nationally important Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). There are also statutory assessments on the implications of the SMP's management approaches for internationally important habitats (Habitats Regulations Assessment) and for water quality (Water Framework Directive Assessment). These also highlight action needed to address those impacts. Natural England has provided crucial technical expertise for these assessments.
These assessments are in the appendices of the SMP, which are available in the 'Downloads' section on this website. More information on protected sites and habitat compensation and restoration can be found in section 11 of the SMP Supplementary Guidance (2020).
SMPs and climate change
Climate change alters the conditions at the shoreline, mainly by causing sea levels to rise. Communities and wildlife are already being affected by sea flooding and loss of land due to coastal erosion, including cliff falls. These events are expected to become more frequent by 2100. Sea level rise is already happening, and its rate is expected to increase. Rising sea levels and storm waves put pressure on sea defences and affect beaches and the movement of sediment. They can therefore increase flooding and rates of erosion.
As long-term plans, SMPs take account of climate change in their agreed management choices and actions. An exercise to 'refresh' the SMPs in 2019-2023 has considered how UK Climate Projections from 2018 might influence them.
Where management intervention is identified to manage the impacts of sea level rise, such as raising a sea defence or moving properties away from a cliff edge, ‘triggers’ for this intervention need to be identified. These triggers might be physical (such as when a cliff retreats to within a certain distance from properties) or they could be related to funding availability and other factors. The timing of when these triggers for action happen may be uncertain, but it is important that they are understood locally. SMP action plans usually include actions to identify, clarify or monitor these triggers.
More information on how management triggers and climate change in SMPs can be found in sections 6 and 7 of the SMP Supplementary Guidance.
SMPs and the Habitat Compensation and Restoration Programme (HCRP)
England’s coast is internationally important for wildlife, providing habitat for high numbers of migrating birds, commercially important fish species, and a great wealth of other plants and animals. Inter-tidal wetlands can be important for capturing carbon that might otherwise be released to the atmosphere. The varied natural character of the coast is also a major draw for people visiting and living at the coast. The health and wellbeing benefits of the coastal environment have long been widely recognised.
However, much of the coast’s past natural value has been lost over centuries. The management directions set out in SMPs should avoid damage to the protected sites - such as SSSIs and Special Protection Areas for birds - that safeguard what remains. They should also reflect the ambition of the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan to restore the natural environment.
The detailed environmental assessments of SMPs may find that damage to some protected sites is unavoidable due to ‘imperative reasons of overriding public interest’. The impact is sometimes because of direct damage during construction of projects. The majority arises because holding unnatural defence lines in place whilst sea levels rise can drown inter-tidal habitats such as saltmarsh and mud flats over time, a process known as ‘coastal squeeze’. Where the damage or loss of protected sites is unavoidable, compensation for those protected features is needed before the impact happens. Where compensation itself causes the loss of other designated habitats, such as freshwater grazing marsh, these habitats must also be replaced.
In 2003, the Environment Agency and its partners established what is now called the Habitat Compensation and Restoration Programme (HCRP). Based on the predicted losses of protected sites resulting from the implementation of SMPs, HCRPs in areas around England identify locations where habitat compensation could happen given the right conditions, funding, and the agreement of willing landowners. The HCRP therefore enables wider activity to manage flood and erosion risk to remain compliant with environmental law.
In its first 20 years the HCRP has successfully kept pace with projected losses of internationally protected sites creating
- Over 1600 hectares of inter-tidal habitat
- Over 460 hectares of freshwater grazing marsh
- Nearly 300 hectares of other coastal habitats
Progress on statutory habitat compensation associated with the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Programme is detailed in reports to Defra.
Habitat Compensation and Restoration Programme – Progress Report 2018
Habitat Compensation and Restoration Programme – Progress Report 2023
The HCRP has included major projects at Steart in Somerset, Medmerry in Sussex and Wallasea in Essex. These and similar projects create space for wildlife to thrive and for people to enjoy, and some help manage flood risk locally at the same time. The HCRP can also play an important role in supporting the wider environmental restoration ambitions of the 25 Year Environment Plan in England. It is important that SMP management approaches enable this where possible.
SMPs and the marine environment
The Marine Management Organisation has led the establishment of Marine Plans and Marine Conservation Zones across England since SMPs were developed. This exercise has taken the management approaches of SMPs into account. SMP Management Groups will ensure that SMP management approaches align with Marine Plans as both plans are updated and delivered.
Marine Conservation Zones are nearshore areas that can include the inter-tidal area, so the habitat restoration objectives of SMPs should complement these sites as much as possible.
More information on SMPs and the Marine Environment can be found in section 12.3 of the SMP Supplementary Guidance.
SMPs and water quality
The approach to managing flooding or erosion may have little bearing on the water quality along some shorelines, but on others there are significant implications. Landfill or contaminated land may form part of a defence structure or itself be at risk from erosion in the land behind. SMPs need to set out approaches that avoid this material entering the marine environment.
Managing the shoreline in a way that makes more space for nature, such as by creating inter-tidal areas within an estuary, can also help improve water quality. These features can capture sediment and nutrients and improve ecological quality. Where possible, avoiding new structures that disrupt these benefits will help maintain the environmental quality of the coast, which is often a major reason for peoples’ enjoyment when living or visiting there.
River Basin Management Plans set out in detail the actions needed to improve the quality of our water environment. This detail can be navigated using the Environment Agency’s Catchment Data Explorer. It includes the actions required for estuaries and coasts ('Transitional and Coastal Water Bodies') which should also be highlighted in the SMP action plan.
More information on SMPs and the Marine Environment can be found in section 12.2 of the SMP Supplementary Guidance.