Lyndsay Bates

MSc Coastal and Marine Resource Management

As an Island nation the subject of coastal management is always going to be a concern for the United Kingdom. Although my main job is working as an Environmental Officer for Chichester District Council, my interest in coastal management developed during a summer I spent doing work experience with the Isle of Wight Centre for the Coastal Environment. At the time I was an undergraduate at the University of Portsmouth studying for my degree in Environmental Hazards and I wanted to increase my understanding of coastal issues with a view to working in that field in the future.

I decided to undertake the MSc in Coastal and Marine Resource Management at Portsmouth whilst doing some freelance work with a coastal and geotechnical consultancy. The MSc covered many of the topics I came across in my professional work, such as how coastlines can be managed in a sustainable way. The course was also valuable in helping me to consolidate my overall appreciation of both practical and theoretical approaches to coastal management.

My MSc dissertation compared the French and English systems for managing coastal development, drawing on case studies from both sides of the Channel. My study reviewed the approaches to coastal risk planning and management in both countries including such issues as adaptation responses to coastal change and the French system of providing compensation to property-owners affected by certain natural hazards such as erosion.

People tend to think that our coastlines are static and enduring but you only have to look at historical pictures to see the extent of physical, environmental and social change over the last 200 years. Through my MSc work at Portsmouth I had the opportunity to co-author a paper on how historical works of art can assist understanding of the changing coast; this research has helped to highlight the scale and pace of coastal change.