Over recent years a succession of significant and damaging storm events along the Slapton Line culminating in Storm Emma in March 2018 have appeared to accelerate coastal change beyond previously predicted, necessitating a reappraisal of the current management strategy.
As a result of the changes, the conclusion is that there is now minimal space available to retreat the road in a significant number of locations, which was the main approach to address coastal erosion in the previous strategy. Further engineering works to retreat the road would now be likely to have a short life and unlikely to attract funding. It would also potentially put the works required in direct conflict with the area’s environmental designations.
This document recommends that we are now entering a phase of life of the A379 road along Slapton Line where further retreat should not take place.
This report demonstrates the vulnerability of the A379 road, along Slapton Sands Beach, to storm damage in the immediate future (post Storm Emma in 2018). The report presents cross-shore profiles along the entire length of the Slapton Line road to provide information on road vulnerability to storms impacts equivalent to that of Emma in 2018, and the space available to retreat the road if road damaging events were to happen again.
Storm Emma significantly reduced the distance between the Slapton Line road and the residual seaward buffer, which would otherwise provide natural protection for the road. The primary conclusions drawn are that there are multiple areas along the road that would be damaged if another storm Emma equivalent were to occur, and further locations where there is no space for landward retreat of the road.
Summary of observations
The purpose of the Beach Management Plan 2018 to identify management activities that could be undertaken to reduce the flood and coastal erosion risk on Slapton Line and Torcross over the next 20 years, whilst recognising and managing associated environmental and amenity implications.
The Beach Management Plan provides information on
This report presents findings that quantify the economic contribution of the Slapton Line road. In particular, two aspects of the road’s contribution are considered:
The research project explored the interaction between Start Bay and Slapton Ley in the event of a major breach of the barrier. The project had two primary aims
This study provided a comprehensive evaluation of the issues relating to coastal processes at Slapton Sands to establish a robust long-term coastal zone management strategy for the area in response to major erosion and road damaging events.