Coastal Hazards: Multi-hazard controls on Flooding and Erosion (CHAMFER)
Lead Research Organisation:
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
Department Name: Science and Technology
Abstract
Coastal hazards pose a significant risk to people, property, and infrastructure worldwide and in the UK. For example, over 1.8 million homes are at risk of coastal flooding and erosion in England alone and coastal flooding is recognized as one of the top two environmental hazards in terms of impact in the 2020 National Risk Register. The occurrence, intensity and impacts of coastal flooding and erosion are projected to increase with climate change and will have major socio-economic consequences. Historically, coastal protection has relied on overwhelming use of hard engineered defence schemes, but adverse effects and high costs of these schemes have driven advocacy of coastal practices that are based on Working with Natural Processes (WWNP). However, future changes in regional sea level, storms, pluvial and fluvial inputs, coastal habitats, and their interrelations lead to significant epistemic uncertainties (due to limited knowledge) about controls on flooding and erosion and limit the implementation of WWNP schemes. Questions remain on how multiple terrestrial and marine drivers of extreme hydrodynamic conditions will combine to control coastal flooding and erosion in the future, on the vulnerability and efficacy of protective services afforded by coastal habitats, and on the performance of WWNP solutions on coasts that already have partial protection by traditional engineered coastal defences.
Event-scale coastal flooding and erosion mainly occur in response to synoptic scale meteorological events. These meteorological events can result in a series of individual hazard components to coastal environments, such as storm surges, extreme waves, extreme rainfall, and extreme river flows. However, these hazard components are not independent of each other, and coastal flooding and erosion commonly arise from the collective impact due to interrelated and/or successive hazard components. In other words, coastal flooding and erosion are controlled by multi-hazards.
The CHAMFER project will characterise how multi-hazards at the coast control coastal flooding and erosion and determine how these multi-hazards will respond to climate change and coastal management. We will deliver a new community modelling system coupled across terrestrial and marine sectors, numerical simulations of which will be used to support multi-hazard analyses under present and future scenarios. This will be combined with an assessment of the role of coastal habitats resulting in national maps for protective services and vulnerabilities of coastal habitats to climate-driven multi-hazards. We will provide tools to analyse the efficacy of future WWNP schemes. CHAMFER will rely on a multi-scale approach both spatially, by considering UK/GB scales and more local spatial scales, and temporally, by considering responses to meteorological events under long-term climate-related or management-related changes. CHAMFER includes significant elements of co-design with stakeholders and we will work with government departments, public sector organisations, and industry users to inform and support coastal protection and adaptation options.
Event-scale coastal flooding and erosion mainly occur in response to synoptic scale meteorological events. These meteorological events can result in a series of individual hazard components to coastal environments, such as storm surges, extreme waves, extreme rainfall, and extreme river flows. However, these hazard components are not independent of each other, and coastal flooding and erosion commonly arise from the collective impact due to interrelated and/or successive hazard components. In other words, coastal flooding and erosion are controlled by multi-hazards.
The CHAMFER project will characterise how multi-hazards at the coast control coastal flooding and erosion and determine how these multi-hazards will respond to climate change and coastal management. We will deliver a new community modelling system coupled across terrestrial and marine sectors, numerical simulations of which will be used to support multi-hazard analyses under present and future scenarios. This will be combined with an assessment of the role of coastal habitats resulting in national maps for protective services and vulnerabilities of coastal habitats to climate-driven multi-hazards. We will provide tools to analyse the efficacy of future WWNP schemes. CHAMFER will rely on a multi-scale approach both spatially, by considering UK/GB scales and more local spatial scales, and temporally, by considering responses to meteorological events under long-term climate-related or management-related changes. CHAMFER includes significant elements of co-design with stakeholders and we will work with government departments, public sector organisations, and industry users to inform and support coastal protection and adaptation options.
Organisations
- NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Granada (Collaboration)
- Sun Yat-sen University (Collaboration)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Collaboration)
- Meteorological Office UK (Collaboration)
- Sayers and Partners LLP (Collaboration)
- University of Bristol (Collaboration)
- Hohai University (Collaboration)
- EDF Energy Plc (UK) (Project Partner)
- MET OFFICE (Project Partner)
- Lighthill Risk Network (Project Partner)
- JBA Consulting (Project Partner)
- Sustainable Management of Marine Resourc (Project Partner)
- ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (Project Partner)
- The Climate Change Committe (Project Partner)
- Peel Ports Group (Project Partner)
- Mott Macdonald UK Ltd (Project Partner)
- ECMWF (UK) (Project Partner)
- Risk Management Solutions Ltd (Project Partner)
- RenewableUK (Project Partner)
- Society of Maritime Industries (Project Partner)
Publications
Bricheno, L.M
(2023)
Climate Change Impacts on Storms and Waves Relevant to the UK and Ireland
in Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnerships
Jevrejeva S
(2024)
Challenges, Advances and Opportunities in Regional Sea Level Projections: The Role of Ocean-Shelf Dynamics
in Earth's Future
Marthews, Toby
(2023)
The Land-ocean interface in land surface models T1.3
Payo A
(2023)
Innovative Representation of the Coastal Topo-Bathymetry and Subsurface for Flooding and Erosion Risk Reduction
in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Savastano S
(2024)
Assessment of Shoreline Change from SAR Satellite Imagery in Three Tidally Controlled Coastal Environments
in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Torrecillas C
(2024)
Sediment Thickness Model of Andalusia's Nearshore and Coastal Inland Topography
in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Wei X
(2022)
Salt Intrusion as a Function of Estuary Length in Periodically Weakly Stratified Estuaries
in Geophysical Research Letters
| Description | A new 500m resolution UK500 numerical ocean model has been developed for the entire UK coast. The model has been validated against 40+ tide gauges around the UK and compared to other UK-scale models including present UKMO surge model. New algorithms have been created to include the backwater effect in river modelling. Analysis using multi-habitat modelling has revealed a relative lack of co-located habitats in the UK. A Marine Evidence based Sensitivity Assessment (MarESA) for saltmarsh has been completed. The GB coastline has been mapped into coastal typologies following Coastal and Estuarine System Mapping. |
| Exploitation Route | Some of our approaches and products are already being taken forward by others. The numerical modelling development are operating in close partnership with the UK Met Office with a long-term view to improve the UK capabilities in operational coastal modelling. The CESM approach is being tested by the Coastal Partnership East as part of the Resilient Coast project funded by Defra. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Energy Environment Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Transport |
| Description | EMB Policy Brief No 12 Requirements for Coastal Resilience in Europe' |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | MB Policy Brief No. 12 provides an overview of approaches for the governance and management of coasts and their human communities towards resilience, and the knowledge required to build coastal resilience, with a specific focus on coastal protection and Nature-based Solutions. It summarises the main messages and recommendations from the EMB Position Paper No. 27 "Building Coastal Resilience in Europe". |
| URL | https://www.marineboard.eu/publications/requirements-coastal-resilience-europe#:~:text=social%2Decol... |
| Description | Evidence for connectivty in Seascapes |
| Amount | £0 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Blue Marine Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2022 |
| End | 01/2027 |
| Description | Gravel barrier resilience in a changing climate (#gravelbeach) |
| Amount | £2,676,195 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 2,676,195 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 01/2028 |
| Description | UKGravelBarriers |
| Amount | £3,060,872 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NE/Y503265/1 |
| Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2024 |
| End | 01/2028 |
| Title | Internationalization of the 3D mapping approach of coastal landscape |
| Description | The methodology developed during the NERC-BLUECoast to map the 3D topography, bathymetry and shallow subsurface of the coastal region has been tested by mapping the whole coast of Andalucia (aprox. 1,200km) in Southern Spain. This demostrated that our method is transferable other regions with different geological and topographical data sources. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | BGS is hosting a professor from Sevilla University, for a one year stay, that is interested in the methodology and further developing the technique. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12020269 |
| Title | Digital Great Britain coastlines (DiGBcoast v1.0): a dataset of the coastline position of Great Britain from 1984 to 2022 derived from publicly available optical satellite imagery |
| Description | DiGBcoast v1.0, is a new supranational dataset documenting three decades of coastal change across Great Britain mainland (England, Scotland, and Wales) including the isle of Wight and Anglesey. This dataset has been produced using the publicly available optical Landsat- 5, 8 and Sentinel-2 missions over the period between 1984 to 2022 (38 years). It includes instantaneous waterlines and instantaneous tidally corrected to Mean Sea Level shorelines. DiGBcoast is made available to the public as free and open interactive data to support future coastal research and management across Great Britain. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | DiGBcoast is made available to the public as free and open interactive data to support future coastal research and management across Great Britain. |
| URL | https://www2.bgs.ac.uk/nationalgeosciencedatacentre/citedData/catalogue/903023c7-a58e-48d6-b2b7-5de4... |
| Title | Erosional Sea Scape Analysis (ESSA) dataset |
| Description | This dataset is a set of spatial layers that capture the all of the environmental drivers of shoreline change. The new derivative include: Terrain Merged elevation-bathymetry surfaces and terrain derivatives such as shoreline slope/shore width, rugosity, curvature, aspect, convexity Erosion EMODnet shoreline change filtered and attributed with all explanatory variables Built Shoreline defences merged of England, Scotlant, and Wales Environmental layers such as soil depth, type, subtidal substrata Coastal classification/ morphology River discharge Tidal power and range (s/n) Waves: HS, period, power, extremes kinetic energy at the seabed: waves and currents PAR at seabed Weather: precipitation, frost days, wind Events Extreme winds, floods, potential for damage Habitats Saltmarsh, mudflats, dunes/Machair, intertidal macroalgae, kelp, seagrass, Sabellaria reef, mussels, oysters |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This GIS dataset is linked to automated models that attribute a response dataset (e.g. EMODnet coastal behaviour or BGS's ODSAS data). The dataset is linked to an R script delivering GAM, RF and NN models. |
| Title | NEMO regional configuration of the Severn Estuary |
| Description | NEMO regional configuration of the Severn Estuary This model configuration has been developed in order to test the NEMO framework in a tidal coastal area at 500 m resolution (in preparation for the UK wide NEMO 500 m model development). |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | It is the precursor of the final model setup we are developing in CHAMFER. |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/records/7473198 |
| Title | Shoreline surveys in the UK |
| Description | Quadrat, drone imagery (multispectral) and biometric observations for shore profiles down several UK shorelines. The dataset includes the quadrat scale photogrammetry pilot study. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Validation of EMODnet coastal behaviour estimates of shoreline change. Analysis of explanatory factors for shoreline change. Pilot study on the value of photogrammetry for the extraction of textural and biometric properties from quadrat-scale imagery. |
| Title | The Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia (STMA) data, intermediate data and scripts |
| Description | This dataset contains the Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia (South of Spain), the GroundHog files and the consulting scripts linked to the paper "Thickness model of Andalusian's nearshore and coastal inland topography " under review in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. The following ZIP files can be found here: ===============STMA.zip A dataset of 108 ESRI ASCII grid files group by province (Almeria, Cadiz, Granada, Huelva and Malaga) and by physiographic zone (18). Each zone has six different files named as: PZZ_V_T_S.asc where, P: It is the first letter of the province (e.g. A for Almeria, C for Cadiz) ZZ: number of physiographic zone from a minimum number of 2 to 6 in each province. Each province was divided by different overlapping rectangles following on the orientation of the coastline, the shape of the continental shelf, river intersections, capes, the main sediment type, and the level of influence from atmospheric and maritime weathering agents, primarily. V: the model version T: Type of sediment, Consolidated (C) and Unconsolidated (U) S: Grain size, Fine (F), Sand (S) and Gravel (G) e.g. the file A01_1_C_F.asc is the province of Almeria, zone 01, version 1, Consolidated sediment and Fine fraction. All files have a projection file (EPSG 25830) with the same name but a *.prj extension and a auxiliary file (*.asc.aux.xml) with additional information about the projection used. ===============Script.zip Specifically, three Pyqgis scripts and three Model Qgis: 1_Add_STMA_by_province_and_zone.py: to add the STMA to QGIS grouping the layers by province and zones. 2_Point_value_STMA.py: to add the STMA value to a point sample layer. 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.py: to calculate the zonal statistics of STMA in a polygon area. 1_Volume_STMA.model3: Calculate the volume of each material (six raster layer) in one zone. 2_Volume_STMA_Clip.model3: Calculate the volume of each material in a clip area using a polygon layer. 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.model3: Zonal statistics of the STMA in a polygon layer. It is a model version of the last pyqgis script 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.py. The first two models could be used in a batch processing if the user needs information of more than one zone. ===============GroundHog.zip Five folders, one for each province, with information to open the models in Groundhog software. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This dataset contains the Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10284704 |
| Title | The Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia (STMA) data, intermediate data and scripts |
| Description | This dataset contains the Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia (South of Spain), the GroundHog files and the consulting scripts linked to the paper "Thickness model of Andalusian's nearshore and coastal inland topography " under review in Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. The following ZIP files can be found here: ===============STMA.zip A dataset of 108 ESRI ASCII grid files group by province (Almeria, Cadiz, Granada, Huelva and Malaga) and by physiographic zone (18). Each zone has six different files named as: PZZ_V_T_S.asc where, P: It is the first letter of the province (e.g. A for Almeria, C for Cadiz) ZZ: number of physiographic zone from a minimum number of 2 to 6 in each province. Each province was divided by different overlapping rectangles following on the orientation of the coastline, the shape of the continental shelf, river intersections, capes, the main sediment type, and the level of influence from atmospheric and maritime weathering agents, primarily. V: the model version T: Type of sediment, Consolidated (C) and Unconsolidated (U) S: Grain size, Fine (F), Sand (S) and Gravel (G) e.g. the file A01_1_C_F.asc is the province of Almeria, zone 01, version 1, Consolidated sediment and Fine fraction. All files have a projection file (EPSG 25830) with the same name but a *.prj extension and a auxiliary file (*.asc.aux.xml) with additional information about the projection used. ===============Script.zip Specifically, three Pyqgis scripts and three Model Qgis: 1_Add_STMA_by_province_and_zone.py: to add the STMA to QGIS grouping the layers by province and zones. 2_Point_value_STMA.py: to add the STMA value to a point sample layer. 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.py: to calculate the zonal statistics of STMA in a polygon area. 1_Volume_STMA.model3: Calculate the volume of each material (six raster layer) in one zone. 2_Volume_STMA_Clip.model3: Calculate the volume of each material in a clip area using a polygon layer. 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.model3: Zonal statistics of the STMA in a polygon layer. It is a model version of the last pyqgis script 3_Zonal_statistics_STMA.py. The first two models could be used in a batch processing if the user needs information of more than one zone. ===============GroundHog.zip Five folders, one for each province, with information to open the models in Groundhog software. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This dataset contains the Sediment Thickness Model for Andalusia |
| URL | https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10284703 |
| Title | pyBDY - a python toolbox for generating model boundary conditions (Ryan Patmore) |
| Description | Toolbox for generating model boundary conditions |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Boundary Conditions |
| URL | https://github.com/NOC-MSM/pyBDY |
| Description | Collaboration with CSIRO |
| Organisation | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration consists of sharing expertise and experience around coastal ocean numerical modelling. This helps both teams solve common issues. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration consists of sharing expertise and experience around coastal ocean numerical modelling. This helps both teams solve common issues. |
| Impact | no outputs yet. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with Hohai University (China) |
| Organisation | Hohai University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Renjie Zhu, a PhD student from Hohai University (China) that I am co-supervising, gave an oral presentation about our collaborative work on "Impacts of estuarine intertidal flats on tidal propagation and estuarine circulation" at the PECS conference (Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas) last October in Shanghai. He is drafting a paper where the support of CHAMFER will be acknowledged. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Paper now in progress |
| Impact | Paper in progress |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with Sun Yatsen University, China |
| Organisation | Sun Yat-Sen University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have established a new partnership with Prof. Huayang Cai and his team from Sun Yat-sen University to collaborate on reducing estuarine hazards (e.g., flooding, salt intrusion) in China and the UK. In 2023, we successfully obtained a Royal Society International Exchange award (£12,000, IEC\NSFC\223066) to support our mutual visits and collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Over the past two years, Prof. Cai has visited the National Oceanography Centre once and has hosted two visits for Xiaoyan Wei at the Sun Yat-sen University. These exchanges have fostered a great understanding of our respective research strengths and common interests. We have also explored potential future collaboration opportunities, such as EC funding and PhD co-supervisions. |
| Impact | Funded project: Towards developing a robust and efficient salt intrusion model for the Pearl River Delta, China Funder: International Exchanges 2022 Cost Share (NSFC), Royal Society Start Date: 31 March 2023 End Date: 30 March 2026 Duration: 3 years (including 1-year no cost extension) Award Value: £12,000.00 |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Met Office |
| Organisation | Meteorological Office UK |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Working collaboratively across the project lifecycle |
| Collaborator Contribution | They have joined the Management Group and listed as a partner in the collaboration agreement |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with the SWOT-UK project |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Tidal elevations from NEMO-UK500, the 500 m resolution hydrodynamic model covering the UK coastal strip, currently under development in the CHAMFER project, were used for temporal correction of the LiDAR data to the time of the SWOT overpass. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The SWOT-UK project is the UK contribution to validating SWOT in the Bristol Channel and River Severn, with application to coastal and river management (SWOT-UK). |
| Impact | A paper is in preparation. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Facilitated a PhD exchange scholarship |
| Organisation | Hohai University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | XW supported her co-supervised PhD student (RZ) from Hohai Unversity in his CSC scholarship application, which was successful in 2024. This scholarship enables RZ to visit the National Oceanography Centre during the last two years of his PhD and continue to collaborate with XW on estuarine modelling. |
| Collaborator Contribution | RZ has been actively contributing to the model development that allows a systematic investigation of the intertidal habitats' role in estuarine hydrodynamics and salt intrusion. |
| Impact | RZ and XW have co-authored two papers currently under review and have two more in preparation. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | New partnership with Granada University researcher |
| Organisation | University of Granada |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | BGS has offered a Visiting Research Associate position to Dr Manuel Cobos from Granada University. Dr Cobos has accepted this position in Jan 2022 and will be collaborating with the BGS-CHAMFER team for the whole duration of the project. Dr Cobos has accepted being a member of the UKGravelBarrier Project External Advisory board. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Cobos has done a short stay at BGS (January to February, 2023) to share their experience on using CoastalME in southern Spain. He has also provided training on the use of the MarineTools software (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105359). Participated in the first CoastalME developers community meeting hosted in BGS headquarters in Feb 2023 |
| Impact | We are working on two research papers that builds on the short stay progress on both CoastalME and the thickness modelling. Also co-organizing a dedicated workshop to be hosted in Southern Spain in Setptember 2023. Active developer of CoastalME as community model. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | New partnership with industry - Sayers and Partners |
| Organisation | Sayers and Partners LLP |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | BGS has offered a Visting Research Associate to Dr Paul Sayers who has accepted. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr Paul Sayers is the founding Partner at Sayers and Partners, a consultancy specialising in the management of the water environment and its associated risks. Previously a Director at HR Wallingford Ltd, Paul has over twenty years internatinal experience in all aspects of flood risk management and coastal management - including large scale strategic planning studies in China, Europe and the US. Paul is also an Associate Adviser to WWF-UK (on flood and drought issues), a Senior Research Fellow at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford (and a member of the Oxford Water Security Network) and an Associate of Risk and Resilience at the ODI. Paul is an advisor to the joint Environment Agency and defra Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management research programme in the UK and co-led the UK Flood Risk Management Research Consortium and FLOODsite research projects. He is a member of the editorial panel for the CIWEM Journal of Flood Risk Management and acts as a reviewer for many other publications. |
| Impact | We have collaborated in several research and innovative proposals. Paul is also providing advice for our work in CHAMFER. In particular regarding the assessment of risk of flooding and coastal erosion at national scale with local resolution. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | University of Bristol PhD project on estuarine ecology |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Daniela Schmidt - Gemma Coxon (University of Bristol) - data sharing for a PhD project on estuarine ecology |
| Collaborator Contribution | Daniela Schmidt - Gemma Coxon (University of Bristol) - data sharing for a PhD project on estuarine ecology |
| Impact | no outputs yet |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Title | CoastalME as OSGeo project |
| Description | CoastalME (Coastal Modelling Environment) is a Free Open Source and Software for geospatial modelling to simulate decadal and longer coastal morphological changes. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | By becoming a project as part of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) we are fostering global adoption of open geospatial technology by being part of an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development. |
| URL | https://www.osgeo.org/projects/coastalme/ |
| Title | Update of Coastal Estuarine System Mapping QGIS plugin |
| Description | QGIS plugin to provide Coastal and Estuarine System Mapping (CESM) functionality within a geospatial framework. The CESMapper plugin for QGIS has been developed as part of the Integrating COAstal Sediment sySTems (iCOASST) project, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC project NE/J005541/1). The code was six years old and not compatible with the latest QGIS version. The BGS team has updated the plugin and can now be used for QGIS versions 3.0 and above |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | This is enabling the BGS CHAMFER team to map the different coastal and estuarine systems along the whole GB to produce the coastal typologies. The team is trialing the updated plugin and we will make it available via GitHub once we have a stable version. |
| Description | BGS coastal team interviewed by Ground Engineering Magazine and featured in the cover of November 2023 edition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Following from a blog on Hemsby erosion, the whole BGS coastal team was interviewed to describe the different coastal related research that we are doing. After the publication of the November edition, with BGS team in the cover, we have been approached by BBC The One Show and received invitation to talk to the North Norfolk Geological Society lectures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.geplus.co.uk/features/coastal-erosion-tracking-retreat-with-new-modelling-methods-01-11-... |
| Description | Briefing sheet on coastal erosion for Jessica Toale (MP) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Provided an overview of coastal erosion to Jessica Toale (MP) focusing on general overview of coastal erosion in the UK along with specific aspects relating to problems recently seen in Bournemouth (West Cliff and Burley Chine). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | CHAMFER & CO-OPT: Developing exploratory scenarios to support coastal online workshop management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Cross working workshop with Project Co-Opt & CHAMFER. Attendees from UKCEH, St Andrews, BGS, University of Liverpool, Cranfield University, JBA Consulting, EDF Energy, Met Office, University of Bristol, Environment, National Trust, Agency, RSPB, Coastal Partners, Scarborough Council, Falkirk Council, Defra. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | CHAMFER Annual Science Meeting 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CHAMFER annual science meeting, a chance for people to come together to discuss progress, half day field work, and meeting the Programme Advisory Board |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | CHAMFER Annual Science Meeting 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CHAMFER Annual Science Meeting, opportunity for the whole team to get together to share progress to date, go on a half day field trip and engage with the Programme Advisory Group. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Created CoastalGeohazards podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this podcast we explore all things related with coastal geohazards in the UK and around the world. By connecting #environment, #money and #governance, you will become aware of coastal risk and adaptation options and you will learn how to navigate the ever growing #news and #ideas in this topic with the help and information from me, Andres Payo. I am a geoscientist and head of the Coasts & Estuaries team at the British Geological Survey. This initiative is driven by my interest in avoiding #future coastal maladaptation and the suffering associated with it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.coastalgeohazardspodcast.com/ |
| Description | Interview with Bloomberg journalist (Olivia Rudberg) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Interview with Olivia Rudberg about coastal erosion. Olivia is putting together a written piece on coastal erosion with an emphasis on the Norfolk and East-Angla coastline and wanted to hear from a scientist about the combination of factors which contribute to coastal erosion and how this is likely to play out in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Meeting with Arup about mapping of nature-based solutions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meeting between NOC and Arup to explore synergies around developing mapping tools for coastal nature-based solutions. This involved representatives from NOC and Arup. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Membership of North West Coastal Forum Expert Advisory Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Membership of the North West Coastal Forum Expert advisory Committee. We provide expertise and advice to inform the work of the NWCF and assist the Trustees in making appropriate and effective decisions; or, where decision-making has been delegated to the EAC, to assist other members in understanding the issues under discussion and making appropriate and effective decisions in line with the charitable objects of the NWCF. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Mersey Sediment Stakeholder Management Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Participation in Mersey Sediment Stakeholder Management meeting to discuss beneficial management of sediment linked to the Mersey estuary and Peel Ports Group, including 15 representatives from across sectors (e.g. Peel Ports Group, Royal Haskoning, Dee Estuary Conservation Group, Marlan, RSPB, Environment Agency, Natural England) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | NERC Pieces Project- AMM15 Developments |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Collaboration with NERC PIECES project - the AMM15 developments are being used beyond CHAMFER |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Panel judge for Royal College or Arts Grand Challenge |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | External member of the judging panel for the RCA 2023/24 Grand Challenge focusing on Ocean & Cities. Assessed postgraduate student projects supporting behaviour change among citizens and organisations through the use of ocean science, co-design and place-based approaches to address the impacts of cities (London in this case) on the ocean and increase city resilience to ocean-related impacts of climate change. The RCA Grand Challenge is the biggest single-institution postgraduate design project in the world. This further strengthened the contribution of NOC to transdisciplinary work on the interaction between the ocean and people. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/projects/grand-challenge-2023-24-ocean-cities/ |
| Description | Participation in "UK science-policy dialogue for the UN Ocean Decade" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Participation in the "UK science-policy dialogue for the UN Ocean Decade" which aimed to (i) showcase examples of UK projects and initiatives related to the Ocean Decade; (ii) highlight where UK engagement in the Decade supports and informs domestic and international policy; (iii) connect and discuss new policy directions and science priorities to seek broad agreement on the UK focus for the rest of the Decade; (iv) promote collaboration, networking and opportunities for co-design of future initiatives and development of the Ocean Decade's legacy for the UK. The event included 3 workshops focusing on 1) sustainable use, management abd protection of the ocean; 2) supporting climate-resilient coastal communities; 3) human-ocean connections. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Participation in UKMO REP workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at UK Met Office led workshop on Regional Environment Predictions, with attendees from across sectors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Participation in the 1st CoastalME developers workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Eight professionals from Academia (Nottingham University, Granada University), industry (Moffat & Nichols), UKRI (BGS) got together for two days to share the experience on using CoastalME for both research and policy advice uses and delineated a plan to continue developing CoastalME as a community open source model. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation about collaborative work on ''Impacts of estuarine intertidal flats on tidal propagation and estuarine circulation'' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Renjie Zhu, a PhD student from Hohai University (China) that I am co-supervising, gave an oral presentation about our collaborative work on "Impacts of estuarine intertidal flats on tidal propagation and estuarine circulation" at the PECS conference (Physics of Estuaries and Coastal Seas) last October in Shanghai. He is drafting a paper where the support of CHAMFER will be acknowledged. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Interagency Coastal Geomorphology Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at the Interagency Coastal Geomorphology Group, 25 June 2024: 18 professional practitioners from across the devolved agencies involved in coastal management (Natural England, Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, National Trust, NatureScot, Cefas). The presentation provided an opportunity to update the group on the latest research coming out of several projects (BLUEcoast, Co-Opt, and CHAMFER) and informed their discussion on evidence gaps and future direction. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Presentation at the EA FCRM Show and Tell webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of the CHAMFER project to the EA FCRM team show and tell webinar. The presentation resulted in questions and discussions after the webinar with several EA staff. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Stakeholder Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Stakeholder Workshop to Introduce Project CHAMFER: Attendees included Environment Agency, Sepa, RMS, UKCEH, NOC, BGS, Maslin, EDF, Natural England, Met Office, JBA Consulting, ECMWF, Mott Mac |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Team member interviewed by the BBC The One Show 7th Nov 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The head of the coasts and estuaries program at the British Geological Survey was interviewed by the BBC The One Show including a feature about coastal erosion in Hemsby. This intervention attracted several enquiries about our work and the team has been invited to give talks at different groups of the Geological Society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Visit by the Cabinet Office to NOC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of NOC work focused on coastal resilience to members of the Cabinet Office visiting the NOC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Workshop on Transdisciplinary use of coastal data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Organised workshop on Transdisciplinary use of coastal data at the SMMR conference in Bristol in May 2022. The objective was to initiate transdisciplinary discussions and gain a better understanding of the coastal data ecosystem. The workshop was open to all participants, encouraging diverse backgrounds across academic, policy and industry communities. Specific objectives of the workshop were to discuss (i) range and diversity of coastal data, (ii) challenges and opportunities from transdisciplinary use of coastal data, and (iii) how data and evidence are accessed, interpreted and used by stakeholders. The workshop was attended by approx 20 people. A report was writtten and posted on the project website. The outcome from the workshop has been subsequent invitation to input to the mNCEA programme via structured research interview. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://projects.noc.ac.uk/co-opt/sites/co-opt/files/documents/SMMR%20Workshop%20Report%20-%20Transd... |