Socio-economic benefits
The main reasons for Managed Realignments (MRs) are to enhance flood defences and/or create new coastal habitat but there are many other benefits accruing that provide further socio-economic benefit. These can relate to tourism, recreational and commercial fisheries, carbon sequestration and water quality improvements. There are good examples of sites delivering clear economic gains (e.g. Freiston) while ecosystem services studies are consistently showing that these projects can accrue economic gain (e.g. Alkborough and in-development projects such as Medmerry and the Wallasea Island Wild Coast project).
This paper reviews what we know about the economical value of realignments and identifies the issues that need to be brought into the design phases of future projects to optimise their economic value alongside their other core objectives.