By the 2080s, up to 1.5 million properties and 1.1 million people will be at risk of coastal flooding annually in England. The Cambridge Coastal Research Unit has shown that rather than constructing hard defences, protecting natural wetland habitats can reduce wave energy. Their work has changed awareness, attitudes, policy and practice, including in the Deben Estuary (Suffolk) and Blackwater Estuary (Essex), where they enabled the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and local decision-makers to see where investment in marsh restoration might have greatest effect.
Added 9 November 2022