Long-term trends, short-term shocks and cliff responses for areas of critical coastal infrastructure

Cliffs composed of glacial and pre-glacial sediments typify long stretches of the coastline of East Anglia, UK. This paper assesses both long-term and short term retreat as it can be extremely rapid. Long-term average annual cliff retreat is typically 2 - 5 m a-1 where cliffs have no protection from storm energetics. However, in single events retreat can be 3 – 4 times this long-term average. Individual storms deliver short term shocks to both the cliff and the beach system which can have serious socio-economic consequences, particularly significant in areas of critical coastal infrastructure. In this paper we look at two such recent events, the 5 December 2013 North Sea storm surge and the February – March 2018 “beast from the east” and “mini beast”. Each of these events left a large shoreline footprint, but each arose from different underpinning meteorological scenarios. Lessons can be learnt for future management planning