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Young. 2014. Community Driven Coastal Management.Pdf Ocean & Coastal Management 94 (2014) 30e37 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean & Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman Community driven coastal management: An example of the implementation of a coastal defence bund on South Uist, Scottish Outer Hebrides Elizabeth Young a,b,*, David Muir c, Alastair Dawson d, Sue Dawson a a Geography, School of the Environment (Tower Building), University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK b The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, Scotland, UK c Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Balivanich, Isle of Benbecula HS7 5LA, Scotland, UK d Aberdeen Institute for Coastal Science and Management, School of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Environment, St Mary’s, Elphinstone Road, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, Scotland, UK article info abstract Article history: Climate change and extreme weather events present a range of natural hazards for the islands of the Available online 24 January 2014 Scottish Outer Hebrides. The coastline of the island of South Uist suffered extensive erosion and shoreline change as a result of a highly destructive storm during January 2005. Particular sections of coastline are susceptible to flooding that may result in the future from damaging storms and also in the long term as a result of rising sea levels. At Kilpheder extensive areas of low-lying farmland are protected from flooding by a narrow stretch of dunes. Following significant erosion during the 2005 storm, several attempts have been made to ‘defend’ the area from inundation. In this paper, we describe the nature of the flood sensitivity, the community driven decision making and management approach employed at this site, the capacity of the local community to adapt to coastal change, and describe the performance of the implemented coastal defences. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is also a crucial social dimension to the issue of coastal change in the Outer Hebrides; in South Uist the land suitable for Much of the western coast of South Uist is part of the South Uist cultivation is limited to a narrow strip close to the coast with a large Machair National Scenic Area, an area of outstanding natural proportion of the island’s population reliant on crofting (a low in- beauty which provides a habitat for many endangered species of tensity form of traditional agriculture practiced in the highlands fauna and flora. The machair is a very rare habitat type with a global and islands of Scotland) for all or part of their income. The Outer distribution of 30e40 000 ha and has a high cultural, social, and Hebrides currently suffers from one of the highest rates of depop- economic significance to the local people. Recent storms have ulation in the UK and any threat to the cultivated machair area from drawn attention to the perceived sensitivity of the coastline to shoreline change, perceived or real, may exacerbate this problem. extreme weather events, and there are concerns that climate The sandy west coast of South Uist has adapted and evolved change and rising sea-levels will add to the threat. Due to a sedi- naturally to changing sediment and sea level conditions ment deficit much of the coastline is eroding and in 1977 thirty- throughout the Holocene. Given the current scenario of rising sea- eight percent of the coast lacked a protective dune cordon level and sediment deficit the coastline is likely to migrate inland (Mather and Ritchie, 1977). In these areas the coast is susceptible to with the machair landforms rolling back until a new equilibrium over wash and flooding, with the latter being a particular concern position is reached (Hansom and Angus, 2001). However, the due to the negative gradient inland from the coastal edge typical human response is to defend the existing coastline and prevent retreat, particularly where important infrastructure is at risk (in this case, agricultural land). There has been considerable pressure from the communities of South Uist for responsible au- * Corresponding author. Geography, School of the Environment (Tower Building), thorities to take action and erect coastal defences in the wake of a University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK. Tel.: þ44 138 severe storm in January 2005. þ 238 4286; fax: 44 138 238 8588. In this paper the sandy headland known as the Luib at Kilpheder E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (E. Young). is used as a case study to assess some of the strengths and 0964-5691/$ e see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.01.001 E. Young et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 94 (2014) 30e37 31 weaknesses of the traditional ICZM approach in the island of South The typical machair system includes the beach, dunes, and the Uist. The site is characterised by very low-lying topography and low-lying machair grasslands. The inland limit of the machair is a lacks a dune cordon at the centre of the headland, making it transitional zone, known locally as the ‘blacklands’, between the particularly susceptible to flooding, over-wash, and erosion. In the calcareous machair soils and inland peats. This area is also ‘Great Storm’ of January 2005, Kilpheder experienced severe frequently characterised by permanent or seasonal lochans due to erosion and in the aftermath of the storm there was pressure from its low elevation and seasonal variations in the water table. Along the local community to defend the existing coastline in this area. some parts of the machair coast the dune cordon is absent, prob- The physical sensitivity of this site to storm damage is detailed, ably due to marine erosion (Mather and Ritchie, 1977). This is the followed by an analysis of the community driven decision making case at Kilpheder where a w150 m section of coast at the centre of process which led to the erection of a coastal defence bund against the headland lacks a dune cordon, leaving the low-lying machair the advice of coastal experts. The performance of the defence bund grassland exposed and at risk from wave action and sea-level rise. is described, and lessons that can be learned from the ICZM process Kilpheder is also very susceptible to flooding as large areas of the and the specific management strategy employed at Kilpheder are machair grassland are below the level of the highest astronomical discussed. tide (HAT) (Fig. 2), which is predicted to be 2.81 m above Ordnance Datum (OD e the vertical datum used by the British Ordnance fi e 2. Background Survey to de ne heights on maps) for the period 2005 2015 (Dawson et al., 2008). 2.1. Study area 2.2. Storms and sea-level rise Kilpheder is a sandy headland located towards the southern end of South Uist’s west coast, in the Scottish Outer Hebrides (Fig. 1). The current rate of global relative sea-level rise, based on sat- The Atlantic coastline of South Uist is about 35 km long, has a meso- ellite altimetry data from 1993 to 2010, is w3.2 mm/yr Æ 0.4 mm tidal range, and faces the northern Atlantic. Straight beaches, large (Nerem et al., 2010). The Coastal Flooding in Scotland Report bays, and soft headlands make up most of the coastline, although (Dawson and Powell, 2012), which provides advice for coastal there are some rocky headlands to the north. The climate is mild practitioners, assumes a current rate of relative sea-level rise of with wet winters and dry summers. Most storms approach from w2 mm/yr in Scotland. The rate of sea-level rise is expected to the south and southwest (Dawson et al., 2007). South Uist has a low increase during the 21st Century, leading to best predictions of population density and the coastline is relatively undeveloped. global mean sea-level rise of between þ18 and 59 cm by 2 100 Despite this the coast has been influenced by human activities (International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007). With regards throughout the historic period, including seaweed gathering, to sea-level rise around the UK, Woodworth et al. (2009) concluded cultivation, sand and gravel extraction, livestock access, and mar- that regional sea-level change predictions from the 2002 UK ram cutting. More recently human activity has focused on coastal Climate Impacts Programme remained valid. These predict sea- defences. level change range from À1toþ59 cm for northwest Scotland The machair overlies a strandflat surface composed of Lewisian (Hulme et al., 2002). These rates are generally slightly lower than gneiss (Cooper et al., 2012), which extends offshore as a low previous local estimates of sea-level change for the Outer Hebrides, gradient shelf. The machair coast developed during the early and which predict sea-level rise of 35e70 cm by 2 100 (Dawson et al., mid-Holocene when large volumes of sand were brought onshore 2001; Angus and Hansom, 2004). by rising sea-levels (Ritchie, 1979). These sediments were reworked In addition to the threat of relative sea-level rise, there is also a by marine and aeolian processes to form an extensive dune com- perception that storminess in the Outer Hebrides is increasing. This plex. A reduction in the rate of relative sea level rise approximately is a major concern as marine undercutting is thought to be one of 6 500 years ago is suggested to have caused the machair to switch the greatest threats to machair stability. However, there is limited from a predominantly accreting sedimentary system to one char- historical evidence to support this. Dawson et al. (2007) found that acterised largely by erosion and recycling of sediments (Hansom there had not been a sustained increase in storminess in the Outer and Angus, 2001).
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