Coastal management conflict, CBA and EIA

Stakeholders and conflict

Key stakeholders:

• Homeowners and businesses want their property protected; those whose land is not defended may face losing homes with little compensation.
• Local authorities must balance budgets and protect roads, services and the local economy.
• Environmental pressure groups want natural processes and habitats (dunes, marshes, cliffs with geological interest) kept.
• Planners and national agencies set policy for long stretches of coast and must justify spending.

In England, Shoreline Management Plans (20 of them) set one of four approaches for each stretch of coast: hold the line, no active intervention, managed realignment or advance the line (GOV.UK, updated 2025). A decision of 'no active intervention' protects the budget and natural processes but makes losers of the residents.

Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)

CBA compares the costs of a scheme (construction, maintenance) with its benefits (value of property, land, infrastructure and economic activity protected, usually as money over the scheme's lifetime). If benefits exceed costs (a benefit-cost ratio greater than 1), the scheme can be justified economically.

Limitations: intangible values (community identity, heritage, the stress of losing a home, landscape) are hard to price; isolated houses or farmland may never score enough to be protected; future values depend on assumptions about storms and sea-level rise.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

An EIA predicts a scheme's effects on habitats, species, landscape, water, sediment movement and people, and proposes ways to reduce harm, before permission is given. It can reveal downdrift effects or damage to protected sites.

Limitations: it focuses on the physical environment, can be dominated by experts, and does not necessarily capture local feelings such as attachment to place. The Getting Started Guide also suggests conflict matrices and values analysis as tools to show which groups agree and disagree.

Worked example

Practice figures: a scheme costs 22 million pounds and is expected to protect property and infrastructure worth 66 million pounds over its life. Calculate the benefit-cost ratio and say what it suggests.

1. Benefit-cost ratio = benefits / costs = 66 / 22 = 3.
2. A ratio above 1 means benefits exceed costs.

Answer: BCR = 3: economically justified, though CBA ignores intangible values.

Check yourself

1. Practice figures: a sea wall costs 8 million pounds and would protect assets worth 10 million pounds. Calculate the benefit-cost ratio. Give your answer to 2 decimal places.
   Show answer

   1.25. 10 / 8 = 1.25.

2. A benefit-cost ratio of 0.6 suggests that
   • the scheme should definitely be built
   • the benefits are 6 times the costs
   • the scheme costs more than the value it protects
   • the environment will be improved
   Show answer

   the scheme costs more than the value it protects. Below 1, costs exceed benefits.

3. Which SMP approach allows the coast to evolve naturally with no new defences?
   • No active intervention
   • Hold the line
   • Advance the line
   • Beach nourishment
   Show answer

   No active intervention. It may mean adapting to erosion rather than resisting it.

4. What is the main purpose of an Environmental Impact Assessment?
   • To calculate the cash value of homes
   • To sell land to developers
   • To design groynes
   • To predict a scheme's environmental effects before it is approved
   Show answer

   To predict a scheme's environmental effects before it is approved. It identifies and reduces likely harm.

5. Which is a limitation of CBA?
   • It uses monetary values
   • Intangible values such as community identity are hard to price
   • It compares costs with benefits
   • It is used by local authorities
   Show answer

   Intangible values such as community identity are hard to price. Things without a market price are undervalued.

6. An environmental pressure group is most likely to support
   • advancing the line with concrete
   • building a marina on a dune system
   • dredging a protected estuary
   • managed realignment that creates new salt marsh
   Show answer

   managed realignment that creates new salt marsh. It restores habitat and natural processes.

7. Explain why a decision to stop defending a stretch of coast creates conflict.
   Show answer

   Residents and businesses there lose homes and property, often with little compensation, so they oppose it, while the council saves money and pressure groups support natural processes, so the groups disagree.. Who loses, what they lose, who gains.

Practise with instant feedback Print this lesson

Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Geography specification, Issue 3 (September 2025)
• GOV.UK: Shoreline management plans (updated 28 January 2025)
• Pearson IAL Geography Getting Started Guide

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.