Coastal Research Group

In the light of climate change where the affects of coastal erosion and inland flooding are increasingly causing economic and social disruption it is evident that the solutions to these problems lay with total engagement of government, business and, most importantly, communities.

The current model of top down initiatives fails on a number of fronts. Often the government do not address the problem at all, when they do attempt to focus they tend to direct their attention to only a part of the problem, whether that is planning or the interests of the science community. The very people most affected by these environmental challenges tend not to have a voice. This inevitably leads communities to completely loose trust in policy makers and all subsequent interactions between the two are characterised by conflict.

The mission of the Coastal Research Group is to promote a better dialogue between coastal communities and various environmental stakeholders to facilitate solutions that best meet the needs of all parties concerned. The group will engage with science led evidence and all stakeholders to find a working space between the evidence and government policies to better reflect the needs of coastal communities like Happisburgh.

We are not a campaign group, we aim to help find solutions that lay between the often polarised positions of the current parties in the debate. For example we do not advocate hard defences as a solution to coastal erosion instead we prefer soft defences which work with nature. Neither do we think that local or central government have the complete burden of paying for the desired solutions, here we believe in partnerships with related businesses and industries.

We simply aim to move away from the current conflicting interests and encourage all the parties to trust each other to find more imaginative and better outcomes to this increasingly urgent environmental problem.