Coastal Partners

Cities of Havant, Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham – United Kingdom

Dates: since 2008

Project leader: Coastal Partners

Classification

Risks

Solutions

Actors

Costs

Summary

Coastal Partners Vision is to manage coastlines, improve community resilience and enhance the natural environment. It was launched to deliver a combined, efficient, and comprehensive coastal management service across the coastlines of four Local Authorities including: Havant Borough Council, Portsmouth City Council, Gosport Borough Council and Fareham Borough Council. Coastal Partners is an innovative initiative made up of a 55 strong team of specialist coastal officers and engineers who manage 162 km of the southern UK coastline. This comprehensive coastal management service is driven forward by the central notion that coastal processes and coastal risk do not respect administrative boundaries, alongside the aspiration that by working together as a group of Risk Management Authorities, more could be achieved for the coastal communities being served.

Its mission include:  

  • (1) Providing leading edge and innovative solutions which demonstrate best practice in coastal, environmental and community support. 
  • (2) Providing coastal defence and management services. 
  • (3) Developing and delivering environmental and habitat services, which are complementary to coastal defence and maintenance. 
  • (4) Shaping, developing, maintaining places which reduce risk, and enhancing resilience for communities. 
  • (5) Delivering high quality outcomes. 
  • (6) Leading and developing the service through high professional standards, expertise, innovation, collaboration and partnership.

Actions

Coastal Partners functions involve managing flood and erosion risk, planning and designing new coastal defence schemes, inspecting and maintaining existing defences and working towards a flood resilient future through adaptation. 

Hard and soft protections

Coastal Engineers are responsible for designing and delivering preservation work that help to protect coastal communities. Coastal defences include defence structures (e.g. breakwaters, seawalls, groynes and revetments) or soft defences (e.g. beach nourishment and recycling).

Habitat creation and rehabilitation

Considering that protecting the coastline from floods and erosion can significantly impact the natural and historic environment, Coastal Partners puts a special emphasis on preventing harm and identifying opportunities for improvement from the development of coastal policies to the carrying out of construction works. It notably co-ordinates the Regional Habitat Compensation Programme in the Solent and South Downs area which seeks to replace habitats that are locally lost due to coastal squeeze or tidal inundation effects. Besides, it contributed to the installation of ECOncrete tidal pools in the North Portsea Island Defence Scheme. These pools create local ecosystems that mimic rock pools and encourage plants and animal life to thrive in a protected habitat.

In addition to its core coastal engineering services, Coastal Partners have also evolved its expertise into habitat and environmental matters, geomatics, funding, research and data analysis. It advises on a variety of areas from project strategy, planning and design to monitoring, implementation and maintenance.

Coastal Partners have been pioneering a more open approach to coastal management since its inception by truly working with others to facilitate place shaping and place making through the implementation of its projects. Coastal Partners have succeeded in implementing a more joined up approach to coastal management across the Local Authorities that it serves, particularly through working closely with local and regional planning teams. Alongside this, Coastal Partners have continually lobbied for a more joined up approach between national and local government agencies highlighting the need for them to recognise the benefits of aligning multiple objectives and multiple funding partners to deliver holistic outcomes for coastal communities.

Outcomes

Coastal Partners have extensive experience of delivering multi-million-pound Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) projects; ranging from strategy and policy delivery, right through to scheme construction and asset management. Over the next 10 years the capital programme alone identifies nearly £300 million of project delivery (across 30 projects) to better protect over 10,000 homes from coastal flooding and erosion for the next 100 years. Our core work also includes the consideration of coastal adaptation projects alongside incredibly important environmental initiatives like intertidal habitat creation and saltmarsh restoration.

Coastal Partners’ success stems from partnerships and driving values:

  • Strong leadership, staff development and support; high professional standards.
  • Leading and innovating sustainable services. 
  • Delivering high quality community satisfaction. 
  • Communicating with and understanding our community’s needs. 
  • Partnering and effectively sharing resources.
  • Environmentally conscious, protective and enhancing resilience.

Resources