Coastal change and shoreline management planning: lessons for coastal governance

Sponsored by the RGS-IBG’s Coastal and Marine Research Group, join us for a panel discussion in which six professionals will share their stories of working on the coast and debate how much progress the UK has made in dealing with coastal hazards, risks to populations, and coastal change. The event will showcase the relevance of geography - physical, environmental, human, and professional practice - to how we think about the shores of this island nation.

Our panel

Dr Meghan Alexander (University of Nottingham) is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography. She holds a PhD in Geography from the Flood Hazard Research Centre of Middlesex University. Meghan has been involved in a range of national and international interdisciplinary research projects, examining matters of flood risk governance and management, social capacity building for natural hazards, climate services, health and well-being on the coast, policy dynamics in climate adaptation and evaluating flood risk governance in England and Wales’.

Oli Burns (Environment Agency) is Principal Geomorphologist in the EA’s National Geomorphology Team, specialising in coasts and estuaries. He provides technical advice to ensure that environmental duties and ambitions are achieved within the agencies’ risk management activities. This involves engaging with coastal management issues around England, developing national policies and guidance such as the Shoreline Management Plan refresh, and contributing to research on how to develop nature-based solutions and adaptive management.

Guy Cooper (Environment Agency) is Senior Advisor Coastal Resilience in the EA’s National Flood Coastal Erosion Risk Management Directorate. Guy has career experience including flood risk mapping, flood warning and incident response which involves helping communities plan and prepare for the range of hazards alongside partners in the emergency services and local government. Currently Guy is supporting the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme projects in East Riding, North Norfolk, Cornwall and Dorset. These aim to make adaptation and transition away from areas of coastal change mainstream by overcoming some of the challenges of supporting communities at risk of coastal erosion now and in the future.

Dr Sophie Day (North Norfolk Council/University of East Anglia) is Senior Research Associate at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and School of Environmental Sciences, UEA. Her PhD was on public perceptions of climate change and she has long-term experience of facilitating coastal action involving communities, professional practitioners and scientists. Sophie is currently seconded to North Norfolk District Council as the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP) project 2022-27 which aims to support coastal local authorities, partners and communities to address the long-term transition of communities, businesses and assets away from the coastline at risk.

Dr Eli Lazarus (University of Southampton) is Associate Professor with expertise in coastal dynamics and geomorphology. His research involves fieldwork, physical experiments, analysis of remotely sensed data, and numerical modelling, as well as exploring the implications of this knowledge for coupled human-environment systems. He is presently lead researcher of the Natural Environment Research Council sponsored Exploring Frontiers: Dynamics of Developed Coastlines project 2022-24, which seeks to deepen understanding about how human-altered coastlines evolve.

Dr Tim Stojanovic (University of St Andrews) is an environmental geographer and social scientist. He is current Chair of the Coastal and Marine Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society-IBG. He has longstanding research interest in how coasts and oceans are managed, including work with the groups which delivered the first and second generation of Shoreline Management Plans. He is presently Co Principal Investigator of the UK Research and Innovation sponsored Resilient Coasts (CoOpt) Project 2021-25 which provides interdisciplinary evidence to support decisions about coastal schemes.