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Good practice Imported

Medmerry Managed Realignment — Europe's Largest Open-Coast Setback, Sussex

United Kingdom · Selsey · See the United Kingdom profile

Top 58% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Completed in 2013–14, Medmerry replaced failing shingle defences with a 7 km set-back embankment and a deliberate breach, creating ~183 ha of intertidal habitat within a 400 ha mosaic now run by RSPB.

Details

Promoter
Environment Agency with RSPB, Jacobs and Team Van Oord
Period
2013–present
Keywords
managed realignment, coastal flood defence, intertidal habitat, compensatory habitat

Description

Medmerry, near Selsey on the Sussex coast, is described as the largest managed realignment of open coast in Europe. The Environment Agency, working with the RSPB, Jacobs and contractor Team Van Oord, built about 7 km of new flood embankment inland and made a breach in the old shingle bank in September 2013.
The scheme created around 400 ha of mosaic habitat, including about 183 ha of intertidal habitat, and serves as compensatory habitat for expected saltmarsh and mudflat losses in the Solent. The site is managed by the RSPB as a nature reserve.
The Institution of Civil Engineers/Landscape Institute case material reports roughly £300,000 per year in avoided maintenance costs and improved green tourism; these are scheme-reported figures.
Caveat: the sources consulted give few quantified long-term ecological or flood-damage outcomes, so evidence is stronger on delivery than on measured impact.

Read the full analysis: https://landscapeinstitute.org/case-study/medmerry_managed_realignment_scheme/

Implementation

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