A significant proportion of human development has taken place in the coastal zone. This region is rich in natural assets for supporting human life and facilitates communication and trade. In recent years an increasing appreciation of the natural environment and biodiversity of the coastal zone refocused our perceptions of its value. However, the processes controlling the natural evolution of the coastal strip are dynamic and in many cases lead to erosion and exposure to inundation by waves and tides. Where these have conflicted with development, attempts to stabilise and control the coast by hard engineering means have sometimes led to less than optimal results.
With the present drive to achieve sustainability, and in the knowledge that climate change will exacerbate the present situation, it has become necessary to review our approach to protection of all aspects of the coastal zone to achieve balanced and enduring solutions. This is possible due to our continuously improving knowledge, through scientific research, of the processes in the coastal environment, and our determination to manage the coastline for the benefit of as wide a range of interests as possible. This can be achieved by a cascading approach to planning, from global through regional to local, taking place over ever decreasing intervals of space and time. In this way coherence is achieved between strategic plans and local interventions, avoiding the effects of piecemeal defences seen in the past.
This paper makes the case for strategic planning, at all levels, of the coastline, incorporating all the uncertainties involved therein, and shows, by case study, how such an approach has been applied in the UK. A description of planning at a national level is presented, and then it is shown how such planning can be driven down to a more local application, with the application of science facilitating the decision making at each level.
