Coastal and estuarine managed realignment - design issues

Managed realignment is a deliberate process of altering a flood defence to allow flooding of a previously defended area. It can make use of natural defences such as sand dunes, saltmarshes, shingle ridges and other coastal features that absorb wave and tidal energy. The technique offers long-term sustainable management of coasts and estuaries for a variety of stakeholders, demanding fewer resources compared with hard defences and giving scope for creating (or re-creating) habitats for wildlife. This publication provides much-needed guidance on the design and implementation of managed realignment and will be of value to coastal and estuarine managers and engineers, consultants, environmental regulators, geomorphologists, modellers, consenting authorities and environmental advisers.