National evaluation of costs of meeting coastal environment requirements

Understanding the costs of protecting fresh and brackish water in Natura 2000/SSSI/Ramsar sites from saline flooding and recreating the habitats in more sustainable locations.

• From: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 17 February 2021

• Category: Environmental management and sustainability
• Topics: Coast, Coastal erosion, Ecosystem service benefits, Incident management, Natural capital, Whole life costs
• Project status: Completed
• Project code: FD2017
• Date of completion: 31 March 2006

Documents

National evaluation of the costs of meeting coastal environmental requirement - final report (50KB) PDF

National evaluation of the costs of meeting coastal environmental requirements - summary (48KB) PDF

National evaluation of the costs of meeting coastal environmental requirements - technical report (761KB) PDF

cost calculation - project record 1 (2.6MB) EXCEL

Habitat replacement costs - project record 2 (34KB) EXCEL

Saltmarsh recreation costs - project record 3 (55KB) EXCEL

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Details

Objectives

This project aimed to increase understanding, at a national level, of the costs of flood management work needed to meet key coastal environmental requirements and objectives. This needed to be achieved in time for the 2007 Spending Review.

Outcomes

The National Assessment of Defence Needs and Costs (NADNAC) made a basic assessment of areas of habitat that may need to be recreated due to coastal squeeze and the defence of designated areas. This research project develops a more detailed approach to improve the understanding between Defra, the Environment Agency and European Commision. It looked closer at the costs of protecting fresh and brackish water in Natura 2000/SSSI/Ramsar sites from saline flooding and recreating the habitats in more sustainable locations. This will allow for a more robust high-level estimate to be provided of the costs of implementing the Birds and Habitats Directives. This also includes some aspects of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and Water Framework Directive.

Future benefits

This project presents a detailed spreadsheet providing information on assumptions and calculations made when estimating the costs. This will be used by Defra and operating authorities to help assess likely flood management costs of meeting environmental requirements at the coast. It may also be useful for operating authorities when considering the most sustainable and cost-effective long-term means of delivery and calculating the cost of alternative delivery strategies.

This project ran from 2005 to 2007 at a cost of £47,550.

Published 17 February 2021