Coastal and estuarine retreat: A comparison of the application of managed realignment in England and Germany

Managed realignment has aroused increasing interest over the past decade, reflecting a growing awareness of the high cost of holding the line, the widespread trend of coastal squeeze, and the potentially adverse effects of accelerated vel rise. This comparative study of England's and Germany's approaches to managed realignment sought to explore similarities and differences and hence provide insights on its future use. Although consideration of managed realignment is widely perceived as a positive development, important and sometimes surprising differences were found concerning its application. This reflects various factors ranging from the physical landscape and the state of coastal defences to cultural factors. Existing schemes are mostly concentrated on the coasts of eastern England and the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Managed realignment in England, and to some extent on Germany's Baltic Sea coast, seems driven by longer term factors, such as the desire to create more sustainable flood defences and to provide new intertidal habitats, although these are often combined with the more immediate need to upgrade defences. On Germany's well-defended North Sea coast, managed realignment has only been undertaken for specific compensation reasons, although broader conservation concerns might become an important future driver for managed realignment in summer polders. Thus managed realignment is now firmly on the agenda in both countries, reflecting a radical departure from the recent past, in which protection was the only possible response. However, application is likely to differ significantly both between and within these countries.