National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping

On 5 April, new coastal erosion maps for the North West will be published on the Environment Agency website. This is part of a joint project with local authorities.

The new maps will provide the latest information on coastal erosion in a format that is consistent across England and Wales and easily accessible online for the first time. They will help people to understand whether coastal erosion could be an issue for their area and will help to inform decisions about planning, living and working on the coastline.

What will the maps show for the South Lakeland's Coast?

Coastal erosion is a natural process and it is not possible, or financially feasible, to protect the whole coastline. We take a risk based approach to managing coastal change to make the best use of resources and defend areas where it is cost effective to do so. Large sections of the coastline in the North West benefit from continued investment in coastal defences and protection from erosion. We consider a variety of options when managing the coast, taking into account the needs of people, business, and the environment.

Under new partnership funding arrangements for flood and coastal erosion risk management, contributions to the cost of any works could be raised by local communities, businesses and other key partners to supplement government funding.

The new, interactive maps will allow users to zoom in on a particular area and find out what the current policy is for shoreline management at that location. For those areas not protected from coastal erosion, it will be possible to see how much erosion we expect to see over the next 20, 50 and 100 years, in line with the selected policy. We work with local authorities using the best available data from a range of sources to estimate the likely extent of erosion.

The new maps are simply a different means of illustrating existing information on coastal erosion and do not reflect a change in our approach to managing risk in specific locations.

From 5 April, the maps will be available in the 'What's In Your Backyard' section of the Environment Agency website, under coastal erosion. Web address is: www.environment-agency.gov.uk or  http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/107495.aspx There is a link to 'What's In Your Backyard' on the home page under 'Home and Leisure'.