Seafords Coastal Defences Seafords Coastal Defences Starter This

Seaford’s Coastal Defences

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Starter This picture of the seafront at Seaford was taken in the early 1980 s. Comment on what the image tells you.

Seaford’s Coastal Defences KEY QUESTIONS – What is; • The management strategy being implemented and the reason for its implementation, • Their intentional impacts on processes and flows of material and/or energy through the coastal system, • The effect of these impacts in changing coastal landforms, • The consequence of these changes on the landscape.

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Look at the OS map extract for Seaford Bay. The breakwater at Newhaven was finished in 1891. Why do you think it was built? How would it have affected Seaford? Draw and annotate a sketch of the area.

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Read through the information on this page as a class. Make notes on how and why the sea defences have changed at Seaford. After the Great Flood – 1954

Seaford Coastal Defences • Up to the mid 1980’s Seaford had a true ALL YEAR ROUND amenity beach, one which provided safe bathing, good shore fishing etc. In effect we had individual beaches of clean, sea washed shingle lying between groynes- much like Eastbourne has today in fact. Largely due to the escalating costs of maintaining the groyne structures, there was increasing concern that the continued ability of the beach to prevent flooding was likely to be compromised unless another, more what we call today “cost effective” solution was found. • At around the same time (1983 -4) a planning application was lodged for the building of the houses that are now along the seafront at the west end of the salts recreation ground. A detailed engineering survey of the integrity of the promenade was undertaken as a result of this application and unearthed a major structural defect in the promenade which in fact was a hole described at the time as being the size of a “double decker bus”! An urgent backfilling exercise was carried out to plug this hole but it seems now that perhaps this was the very first black hole known to mankind, because the back fill material just basically disappeared, never to be seen again!

Seaford’s Coastal Defences • It was obvious that, unless an alternative solution could be found, and found quickly, there was not only a real risk of serious flooding if the promenade were to be breached by the next big storm but, obviously of more importance, that there was also a serious risk of loss of life. At around the same time also Southern Water took over responsibility for flood prevention from the Newhaven and Seaford Sea Defence Commissioners. Basically, two alternative solutions were considered, one being an off shore artificial reef, the other massive shingle replenishment to quickly replace the shingle that had been lost to the sea over the previous years. Bearing in mind the urgency at the time it was decided that the shingle replenishment scheme was the most practical- as it was relatively quick to do and what we now call “cost effective”. • 3 million tonnes of shingle were imported by sea, together with massive Spanish granite rocks which were placed against the promenade – it was quite an operation at the time. This is the scheme we still have today, 20 years on - one long sweeping shingle beach. At this point it is worth pointing out that it is the shingle beach that prevents Seaford from flooding, not the promenade. If the sea ever does reach the promenade in its full fury, Seaford’s flood defences truly would again be in serious danger of being breached, as they were in the 80’s.

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Watch this documentary from 1987 on the construction of Seaford’s Coastal Defences. Read the letter in the Sussex Express - why did they not simply replace the groynes and sea wall which was there before 1987?

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Why might some people feel that this is the wrong sort of coastal defence for Seaford?

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Read the article from Newhaven Port Authority about the future for Seaford. What problems does this article suggest about simply maintaining the current beach as a defence against flooding? Have a look at this website developed by someone who was campaigning for a different solution. What does he propose and why?

Seaford’s Coastal Defences Report – Coastal Management of Seaford Bay 1. Introduction i. ii. 2. 3. Give the location Brief history Management strategies i. ii. Which strategies have been used at different points on Seaford Bay? Why were these strategies chosen? Impacts i. iii. How did these management strategies affect sediment flow? How have they affected beach profiles? How have they affected the formation of other landforms? 4. Conclusion i. ii. Are there alternative strategies which could have been tried? Is this an appropriate form of coastal management for the area?