The Scottish Government’s Dynamic Coast project took a major step forward this year, with the publication of new research on coastal change across Scotland.  DynamicCoast.com has been updated to reflect the latest science, outputs and tools now available for partners to use in NFM, resilience and adaptation planning. The work was funded via CREW and the St Andrews Links, the research was conducted by the University of Glasgow and managed by NatureScot.

6,000 km of new tideline data has been used to monitor the latest coastal changes, reflecting the health of Scotland’s natural coastal defences that now protect some £15bn of coastal assets; almost three times the value of assets protected by artificial defences. The research found that around £1.2bn of roads, rail and residential property is at risk if we don’t act. Given this, a focus on improving the resilience of coastal Nature-based Solutions is likely to be a major focus for local authorities and partners going forward.  

The new research includes, an updated National Coastal Erosion Risk Assessment to sit alongside assessments of coastal erosion enhanced flooding, detailed super-site analysis showing resilience and adaption options for 6 exemplar locations across Scotland, vegetation edge analysis, coastal erosion disadvantage (which explores social vulnerability & erosion) and an entirely new coastal monitoring method using regularly updated satellite data.

To find out how your coast is changing, and how to become ‘sea level wise’, visit the Dynamic Coast website via the link below. Check out the COP26 landing page for a summary of the key information.