Estuarine and coastal managed realignment sites in England - A comparison of predictions with monitoring results for selected case studies

Managed realignment is a relatively new soft engineering strategy undertaken to provide sustainable coastal defences, re-create intertidal habitats or a combination of these two aims. More than fifty managed realignment sites have been created since the first in 1991. This study (performed originally for a MSc project) describes the comparison of predictions made about individual managed realignment sites with the results from monitoring programmes at each. The intention was to evaluate whether current practice is getting full benefit from previous monitoring effort and to see whether the monitoring effort had been appropriate. Six managed realignment sites on the East coast of England were chosen for study. Results of the comparisons are presented on an individual site basis, showing that quantitative predictions were rarely accurate over the timescale of the monitoring