Rosie Stannard is a Senior Coastal Change Officer for the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. OCR Geography Subject Advisor Kerry Sage caught up with Rosie to hear more about the Changing Coasts East Riding project and its links to GCSE and A Level Geography.

What is the Changing Coasts East Riding project?

Changing Coasts East Riding (CCER) is investigating how we can better support communities in East Yorkshire at the forefront of coastal change. It is one of five Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP) projects, managed by the Environment Agency (EA), funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and delivered by local authorities, including East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

What are the key actions?

CCER’s key aim is ‘to collaborate with coastal communities to respond to, and plan for, the impacts of coastal erosion both now and in the long-term’. Our key work strands are:

• Knowledge and skills. Making sure communities have access to information about future coastal erosion risk and the knowledge to make informed decisions. We’re also working with academics and schools to develop the coastal knowledge and management skills needed for the future.
• Practical transition delivery. Replacing and improving at-risk community assets, such as housing, beach access, and car parks
• Policy and funding. Reviewing and developing policy and securing funding to deliver coastal transition in the long-term.
• Monitoring and evaluation. Collecting and analysing evidence to share what works in sustainable coastal management.

Why is the project needed?

Those of you who teach about the Holderness coast for GCSE Geography A or GCSE Geography B will be aware of the challenges facing communities and businesses in areas of ‘no active intervention’ under the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP). While there is a small amount of support available for some individuals affected, the loss of homes and infrastructure has wide-ranging social, economic and environmental impacts.

What will the project do?

Talking to communities is vital to make sure they understand the risk and can plan for the future. We are able to replace community assets like car parks and beach accesses, as well as build houses where they are needed.

We are developing ‘coastal transition plans’ with communities, to identify what is at risk and set out an agreed plan for the future. Alongside this, we are investigating how coastal transition can be funded in the long-term, beyond the end of the project.

What’s the plan for the future?

The council’s ambition is to use the learning from the project to better support the coastal communities of Holderness in the longer-term. The EA’s new National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping (NCERM2) shows erosion risk zones for 2055 and 2105, including climate change scenarios. This gives us an opportunity to help communities plan for the future and transition away from the risk, minimising the social, economic and environmental costs.

What resources are available to support schools and colleges?

We are developing a range of Holderness coast resources including fieldwork, decision-making and case studies, so that this sustainable approach can be embedded in coastal management lesson sequences. It is important to make sure that students and teachers are aware of this more sustainable approach to managing the Holderness coast in areas of no active intervention.

Please get in touch if you would like to be involved in developing or testing these resources.

There is also a working group coordinating the educational offer for different sustainable coastal management approaches across the coastal FCIP projects. You can find out more about these projects at the flood and coastal innovation programmes pages of the EA website.

We are aiming to develop a range of sustainable coastal management resources, including case studies, field visit guides, professional development and coastal careers information. This will be located in a single online location, useful for teachers.

How can the project link to OCR’s Geography qualifications?

CCER links with the requirement for a UK coastal landscape case study in both GCSE Geography A and Geography B. If you already use the Holderness coast for this, now is the ideal time to update your management content. The Holderness coast is also a popular destination for fieldwork, and synoptic links can be made with the consequences of climate change.

The Holderness coast is also ideal for the OCR A Level Coastal Landscapes option for a case study of a landscape that is being managed. There are also opportunities for the independent investigation.

What is appropriate/updated terminology?

Coastal transition. For some places the scale and pace of change may be very significant such that, over a period of time, risk management authorities will need to support communities to transition away from the current coastline.

Adaptation. Adaptation means anticipating appropriate action to prevent or minimise the likelihood and consequences of flooding and coastal change, both now and in the future. It has been shown that well planned, early adaptation action saves money and lives later.

Resilience. The capacity of people and places to plan for, better protect, respond to, and to recover from flooding and coastal change. Places can achieve this by:

• making the best land use and development
• better protecting people and places
• responding to and recovering from flooding and coastal change, whilst all the time adapting to climate change.

No active intervention. This means there must be no investment in coastal defences by any individual or organisation. Instead, natural erosion processes must be allowed to continue. We avoid the term ‘do nothing’ as this implies no cost and no support for individuals and communities.

Stay connected

If you have any questions, you can email us at geography@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X @OCR_Geography. You can also sign up for email updates for information about resources and support.

If you are considering teaching any of our qualifications, use our online form to let us know, so that we can help you with more information.

About the author

Rosie Stannard is a Senior Coastal Change Officer for the Changing Coasts East Riding project at East Riding of Yorkshire Council. She brings two decades of educational experience to the role, having taught geography in secondary schools across York and East Yorkshire from 2003 to 2023. Her longstanding interest in coastal management, particularly along the dynamic Holderness coast, was shaped by her teaching career and now informs her work supporting coastal communities in adapting to change.