With risks of coastal flooding and erosion increasing, investment in coastal protection is likely to increase. The decision-making processes required to manage these increasing risks relies on a robust evidence base of coastal processes, and predictions of coastal change. Strategic coastal monitoring provides the best balance of targeted, consistent, reliable, and openly available coastal data, collected efficiently and providing value for money to underpin evidence for flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) decision making.
The National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes (NNRCMP) project funded by DEFRA and administered by the Environment Agency, consists of six regional monitoring programmes with the lead Local Authority taking responsibility for funding applications, budget control, data collection, quality control, programme implementation and ensuring delivery to partners in the Regional Programme and the Coastal Group. The lead Authorities for the Regional Programmes are:
- Northeast - Scarborough Borough Council
- East Riding - East Riding of Yorkshire Council
- Anglian - Environment Agency
- Southeast - New Forest District Council
- Southwest - Teignbridge District Council
- Northwest - Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
There are three primary aims of the monitoring programme:
- To assist coastal managers by providing them with relevant information on which to make sustainable future shoreline management decisions
- To assist in the definition of the magnitude of risks of coastal flooding and erosion and to provide data to support re-evaluation of those risks in the future.
- To improve understanding of coastal process behavior and how those processes interact with the shoreline.