Recent UK experience of coastal cliff stabilisation

Abstract

There are many locations on the UK coastline where the soil and weak rock cliffs are subject to erosion, and the resulting instability threatens both public safety and infrastructure. With predicted climate change, the impact of this erosion and instability will be an ever-increasing adverse affect on the coast. A total of 14 cliff sites are reviewed. Each site described, which includes sites comprising glacial deposits, reactivated post-glacial landslides and Jurassic and Cretaceous weak rock strata, has been stabilised using a combination of different techniques. This paper is a review of the methods of investigation and the approaches to the selection of the stabilisation techniques that have been used at each of the sites. In some cases the significance of the environmental status of the sites and its influence on the selection of stabilisation techniques is described. Some of the techniques, including piles, buttresses, drainage and reinforcement are discussed further, although comprehensive details of the majority of the sites are provided in site-specific publications given in the list of references.