Lyme Regis

How a community built its way to resilience against the ever-rising sea slowly eating up their town.

VD Krishnan and Zhu Haotian

The issue of rising sea levels poses the greatest threat ever known to the coastal regions of the world. Sea levels, particularly in the 21st century, have begun to rise at an unprecedented rate with the rate at which they are rising having doubled, from 0.06 inch (1.4 millimeters) annually throughout most of the 20th century to 0.14 inch (3.6 millimeters) per year from 2006 to 2015, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Lindsey 2022). There are numerous examples of towns which currently have a significantly decreased land area compared to times in their history with the land area lost having been eaten away by the encroaching sea.

An area where these issues are most prevalent is Lyme Regis, a small town on the Jurassic coast in the south of the UK. With its promenade being regularly flooded, especially on days of high wind, and cliffs collapsing with livelihoods going with them, the town has bore the brunt of the impacts caused by rising sea levels (Moore et al. 2016). Though these challenges have somewhat presented opportunities for the residents of Lyme Regis to show resilience which they have taken as shown through their community initiatives and how they have made the government take notice (Davis et al. 2015). Ultimately, the case of Lyme Regis has shown that building resilience in the face of rising sea levels requires community wide initiatives and awareness in order to bring about effective government action.

The community impact

As mentioned earlier, because the sea levels are so high, times of high tide prove tricky for towns like Lyme Regis, with windy days almost guaranteeing the town’s promenade to be flooded. The flooding is most likely to affect many of the town’s local businesses in close proximity to the River Lim or the Beach. These are the two areas where structural tipping points of the banks of the river and the coastal sea wall are usually breached, causing water to cascade over and into the town.

Shown in the image, are waves smashing against The Cobb, an Old surviving Sea Wall of the town.

In the winter, when tourist numbers in the town is at its lowest, cliff collapses are more prevalent, with spray from large waves getting trapped in faults along the cliff. These water droplets forced and stuck inside these faults eventually freeze and widen the cracks, making the cliffs more weak and susceptible to large amounts of erosion (Mallott 1927). In the summer months, hydraulic action takes place where waves that crash against the cliffs, force air into faults in the cliff, causing an explosive decompression. This process forces parts of the cliff to be dislodged and fall, sometimes landing on the beach which, like in August of 2012, can on occasion have fatal consequences (Mallott 1927; BBC 2012).

In August of 2012, a series of cliff collapses hit Lyme Regis causing multiple rockfalls as well as endangering many of the town's residents utilizing its beaches. Just a month before that, a woman was killed after a cliff collapsed on top of her while she was walking along a beach in a town, just 12 miles east from Lyme Regis (BBC 2012).

It became clear that these issues were now causing death and mass destruction of property (BBC 2012). This image shows a house, in Norfolk, England, perilously hanging over the edge of an eroded cliff after a recent collapse.

Not only do these issues of erosion and the subsequent cliff collapses endanger members of the public on the beaches below but also those who have residences on the cliff, close to the cliff edge (Davis et al. 2015). Incidents of damage and destruction of property as a result of land slippage are largely common amongst properties near to the cliff edge in recent years (Davis et al. 2015). This makes those communities more susceptible to the extreme consequences of rising sea levels.

Building Resilience

To combat these issues, civil society groups were formed to ensure that the voices of the residents were heard in negotiations with government and council officials on how to tackle these issues posed by rising sea levels.

1990

A plan named the Lyme Regis Environmental Improvement Scheme (LREIS) was made to manage the coastline at Lyme Regis (Johns et al., 2010).

Phase I - 1990 to 1995

Construction of a sea wall and promenade to the east of the mouth of the River Lim as well as sewage treatment of the River itself (Johns et al., 2010).

Winter of 2003 - 2004

A cliff stabilization project (Not related to the LREIS), was carried out by WDDC. This involved using large nails to hold the rocks together in order to prevent landslides and cliff collapses (Dorset Council).

Phase II - 2005 to 2007

With the help of WDDC and Dorset County Council's Highway Authority, the construction of new seawalls and promenades took place, with wider sand and shingle beaches being created as a means to absorb and reduce wave energy at times of high wind (Dorset Council, 2005). Simultaneously, the extension of rock armour to protect the harbor wall (The Cobb) to the eastern end of the seafront was constructed also with the intention of absorbing wave energy and for the purposes of beach retention (Dorset Council, 2005).

Phase III - Cancelled

Phase III was planned to introduce defenses to prevent landslides and coastal erosion to the west of The Cobb, but was cancelled due to budget complications (Internet Geography).

Phase IV - 2013 to 2015

Phase IV involved the construction of sea defenses (390m of Sea Wall) to protect the coast to the east of the town (Johns et al., 2010). Simultaneously the heavily eroded cliff was stabilized through the processes of nailing, piling, and improving drainage (Johns et al., 2010). The nails that were installed were up to 19 meters long, which were covered with a 60 to 120-year design life mesh (Internet Geography).

In the time since the project has come to a conclusion, 480 homes along the seafront have been protected as a result of long-term protection against destructive coastal erosion and cliff collapses (Dorset Council). The benefits of the new sea wall have included it being more resistant to stormy weather and thus, the harbor being better protected, benefiting the fishing industry and boat owners (Internet Geography). With a new promenade along the seafront, less flooding has ensued with local businesses not having to shut in the event of bad weather which has been a boost for the local economy.

As an aside, ecology-wise, The area which Lyme Regis is situated on, The Jurassic Coast, is rich in ecological items such as fossils (Wilson, 2017). This also happens to be the primary basis of the strength of the local economy of Lyme Regis and the surrounding area, with tourists being a source of strength of the economy. (Wilson, 2017). These coastal management processes have protected fossils embedded in the cliffs from being lost to the sea and theoretically, without tourism the local economy can essentially be predicted to enter decline (Wilson, 2017). 

Lessons we learn from Lyme Regis

As a result of this project, Lyme Regis has been at less risk of coastal erosion. It can be said that the townspeople played a considerable role in achieving this outcome for the town, considering the role civil soceity played in the designs of the schemes that needed to be implemented (Davis et al. 2015). These people have no wealth or political power, but they’ve made progress through their respective alliances and negotiations with the council, which an impeccable example of climate leadership.

Rising sea levels is a huge and daunting issue, but it doesn’t mean that it is inevitable. Emulating the journey to resilience that Lyme Regis undertook should give us hope that changes can be made over time. We should not give up our chances to bring about change. The ultimate lesson, one can say, that we learn from Lyme Regis is that the force of community is omnipotent. Lyme Regis has shown that this is the way forward. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. This is how we should approach our future.

Work Cited:

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