Sandscaping Inspired by the Sand Motor

Abstract

Coastal management in Europe is shifting toward soft coastal protection strategies to deal with flood risk and erosion. An interesting example of this transition is the coastal enforcement project for the Bacton Gas Terminal (operated by Shell and Perenco) at Bacton, North Norfolk. The terminal is threatened by cliff erosion, and “Sandscaping” was included as an option to protect the terminal and nearby villages from coastal erosion. In this initiative, with Sandscaping being akin to “Building with Nature”, British partners collaborated to translate the Dutch Sand Motor to the different physical and socio-political context of the UK. Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the partners in the Sandscaping initiative, was responsible for the design of the longterm sandy solution. Jaap Flikweert, Flood Resilience Leading Professional at Royal HaskoningDHV, invited the postdocs of NatureCoast to share the latest findings of the Sand Motor during the design phase of the Bacton coastal enforcement. Besides the technical challenges of making accurate morphological forecasts of the sandy solution, the main challenge lay in establishing the public-private venture of Bacton Gas Terminal and the North Norfolk District Council.