Imagining the measure of change: art, science and the estuary community

The intention of this network proposal is for an artist, Simon Read and coastal scientist, Helene Burningham to collaborate with a community partnership, the Deben Estuary Partnership (DEP) on the consultation exercise leading to an estuary management plan. The context for this is the need to reach beyond opinion to a resolution that fuses interpretation of available data, stakeholder need and the passionate connection that a community has to its landscape.

Historically, where an estuary strategy is government agency led, the parameters are already constrained by established determinants such as Flood Risk Management and the obligation to conserve intertidal habitat. Where in the past it has been found at public consultation stage that this can lead to discord, the DEP has sought to harmonise the process by adopting a more integrated approach to link stakeholder interest to a more informed understanding of estuary systems and how they are likely to change in the future

In 2015, the DEP published an estuary plan that was both endorsed by the Environment Agency and adopted by the local planning authority. Now however, due to a change in local government there is a need to review and revise this document to align with a new Local Plan. It is coincidental that many of the actions proposed in the existing management plan have come to pass, including extensive improvement to the capability of the flood defences and an enhanced appreciation of the value of saltmarsh.

In the interim so much has changed: climate change continues to drive sea level rise, putting pressure upon intertidal habitat, sustainability of flood defences and causing saline intrusion into the groundwater. Pressure for housing will cause an increase in visitor numbers and footfall, increasing levels of disturbance around the estuary, as will the agreement over the route for the Coastal Path. Disturbance has also been caused in the estuary landscape by the installation of infrastructure for the Anglia 1 offshore wind turbine array. Given these pressures and the Deben may become the victim of its own popularity both afloat and ashore, it is not an option to just update the existing management plan. This has led the DEP to decide to focus upon the nature of change, what evidence there may be in the estuary, what a future scenario may look like and what strategies should be put in place to adapt and to manage it.

Since many changes in landscape are so incremental that communities may not be aware of their significance, it will be a challenge to develop a format for a discussion about how to build a management plan around the certainties and uncertainties to be faced in future. Since the conditions that both affect and respond to change are profoundly cultural as much as factual, it makes sense that an arts and science team might collaborate with the DEP to devise a programme of workshops for community members to accumulate and negotiate evidence for the estuary plan.

The proposal is to generate six workshop events through 2000-2001 to explore themes relating to understanding change in the context of the Deben Estuary and to make this a material discourse requiring participants to contribute to the accumulation of evidence during the project. The final workshop will be a feedback session to reflect on what has been learned, followed at the end of 2021 by an exhibition of the material produced at a suitable location in the estuary to which all participants, institutional and community stakeholders will be invited and will subsequently be open to the wider public.

Our aspiration is that working in partnership with the DEP, a reflexive and reflective arts/science activity will enhance a sense of understanding of estuary systems, foster a more informed level of debate and have the potential to contribute materially to the Deben Estuary Plan.

Our project is planned to deliver impact at multiple levels. Focusing on a specific set of environmental governance challenges in a coastal landscape where change is evident at multiple spatial and temporal scales, we are certain that the project will have a direct impact on those involved in the decision-making process locally. But more generally, similar issues challenge other coastal communities not only in the UK, but around the world, and we are therefore confidence that the impact of our work will have both reach and significance. Impact through this project will be achieved through:

i) Stakeholder engagement: our project focuses on the development of a network of people and action to explore different collaborative approaches across art and science that consider and embrace the concept of change within estuarine landscapes; the knowledge exchange activities of this has the potential to have impact both locally and regionally

ii) Participation in regional and national coastal management conferences: we will disseminate the progress and activities of our project to regional and national audiences who work in and/or research the environmental governance sector, and by doing so we hope to have impact on the approaches used elsewhere to support decision-making.

iii) Wider dissemination: we plan to share our experiences and ideas to public and private sectors, stakeholders and researchers through regular web, social media and newsletters updates. We also plan to submit research papers reflecting on the process to disseminate to the wider academic community.

iv) Estuary plan: the materials generated in our project, including synthesis of existing data and information, will exist as a legacy resource for the Deben Estuary Partnership to use within the new estuary plan. Perhaps more importantly, the discussions we facilitate and reflective environment that we offer, will feed into the decisions made and the plan developed.