loosing the broads to the sea

Yes heard it on the radio while parked on the M25 yesterday. 13 villages was it that could/will disappear. It's ironic isn't it that we are running out of room in this country because of the number of people and yet we cannot afford to protect the land we need to keep some space.
 
I wonder what the Dutch make of our logic?


Oh, of course, a Dyke in English is a person of differently abled sexual preference. Silly me.
 
It's funny you mentioning the Dutch. If opening the sea wall here on the Blackwater to allow the land behind to flood, eases the height of tide significantly enough to reduce the risk of flooding, what was the impact of the Dutch Delta Plan on our vulnerability to flooding. Surely their action have put us at greater risk?
 
You may well be right. And being Great Britain, we should have built a higher wall, better for longer, and at greater cost, on account of we have more money than them. Besides we were the greater sea paower, so its our birthright. Isnt it?
 
We were also Great ......... once upon a time, or is that just me being cynical /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I recall something recently about this being the last time the defences are going to be repaired/strengthened at the Deben. Perhaps we should start a campaign to move the HQ of Defra to Orfordness, or Bawdsey and see if we can't focus their minds a bit.
 
In the South East you can do bgger all about it. This end of the country is sinking as the north is rising post the melting of the ice, and losing all that weight. Building walls is a fools errand ultimately.
 
I disagree. I haved lived for several years in a house 1 foot below sea level. The walls are high. Make them a bit higher, and Robert is Your Father's Brother.
Seems like a good use of University this engineering lark.
 
does anyone know which broad is the largest,i remember that it was particularly at risk.I used to live in Belton,inland a bit from Gt Yarmouth and if i dug past the top soil i found sea shell fragments.Like wise where i live now has never been under the sea and is 6ft above sea level,yet the sea came within 1/2 a mile of where i live to day.
 
I really admire the dutch civil engineering schemes that created polders and millions of hectares of extra land. The work created a much larger country and was cost effective if planned and implemented over decades.
Our East coast (from say Withernsea to Kent) is primarily glacial sands, silt, clays and gravels deposited by the run-off from melting glaciers( or other bits of the East Coast moved down the coast a bit by the sea) i.e. very soft and easily erodible. The length of coastline we would need to protect with high banks is much longer than the dutch have protected in Holland.
I think the sad fact is there simply isn't enough money that will ever be available to protect enough coastline from being eroded to keep everyone happy.
This may be of no comfort to those unfortunate enough to have bought a house 100m from the cliff edge 30 years ago and are currently watching it disappear over the retreating cliff edge.
I attended a lecture about 20 years ago given by a professor at the University of East Anglia, who in summary explained that sea defences on most of the East Anglian coast would be a complete and utter waste of time and money or at the very least would be a money pit of continual expenditure due to the nature of erosion and deposition - Happisburgh disappearing and Yarmouth/ Orford Ness etc. being created. (so yes Yarmouth was the product of longshore drift and is built on shingle, sand , bits of Happisburgh, and sea shells.)

It would seem that apart from the protection of relatively high value assets such as Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Cromer, the price of living on a sandcastle is to watch it disappear at high tide.
The argument can be skewed by the efforts that have gone into protecting and draining the Cambs/Lincs fens, but then again this is high value agricultural land and done over centuries started by the Dutch.

Yes, I think the Broads will be inundated by the sea in most of our lifetimes, and the coastline will change. North East Norfolk will probably end up being one of the biggest saltwater wetlands in Europe or perhaps resemble the Fresian Islands with barrier islands of Yarmouth and Lowestoft protecting tidal flats behind them.
Have a look at Google Earth for the Halvergate/AcleYarmouth area and you can almost see what the new coastline will be with Reedham being "on the coast"
Isostatic recovery is indeed one of the drivers behind this causing land lowering rather than sea level rising. Combine this with climate change which could cause thermal expansion of oceans (assuming the Atlantic Conveyor dosen't switch off) and Norfolk should get a new coastline.

These are my opinions rather than scientific fact but seem to make sense to me for what it's worth.
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At least the Broads Authority will stop charging exhorbitant fees for boat owners by the way of tolls so they can save the Bittern which possibly no one has ever seen!!!!!! because the bitterns will all b----r off to Holland
 
or maybe leave the Fenlands completely. Anyone have some info on what area they can still protect ?. I'm below sea level here so would be interested in a map showing projected areas that would be affected.
 
There was a map in the Telegraph showing where the new sea walls would be. If we have to lose something, I'd rather it was the chunk between the A127 and the A2 - although we'd have to rescue Moodysabre and a couple of others.
 
I don't mind playing Noah, but if this is what they are willing to give up now, how long before the next area returns to the sea. Some nice villages with loads of history in this area.

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Dont worry about Moodysabre, he has behaved like a good capitalist, and has established himself in an expensive hilly bit.
 
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