The Horsey Island projects clearly demonstrate how coarse and fine-grained dredged sediments can be used effectively to build up and restore intertidal habitats and enhance coastal protection.

The UK’s first and largest beneficial use of dredged sediment projects took place at Horsey Island (Hamford Water, Essex). Between 1990-2006 several different campaigns occurred and around 250,000 m3 of capital and maintenance dredge arisings from Harwich and Felixstowe were used to enhance intertidal habitats and cost-effectively protect coastal defences. In total these have included in the region of 148,000 m³ of coarse sand and shingle and 107,750 m³ of fine silt/mud.

Now that over ten years have passed since the completion of the last phase of work (and nearly 30 years since the first trial phases) ABPmer has prepared a brief review of all the Horsey Island projects. We have examined how the schemes have performed by visiting the site and using the Environment Agency’s latest LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. 

Our findings conclude that these projects clearly demonstrate how both coarse and fine-grained dredged sediments can be used effectively to build up and restore intertidal habitats and enhance coastal protection. They also show that such benefits can persist over at least two or three decades (including a period which has seen major storm events) and provide a cost effective flood defence mechanism.

The pioneering work at Horsey has been valuable in its own right but was also an inspiration for other beneficial use work elsewhere in the country. Ten years on and with more thought being given to beneficial use at a number of sites, now is a good time to shine light back onto the valuable work that done here.

Download our review of the Horsey Island beneficial use projects.

For more information on Horsey Island and our work in coastal habitat restoration, email Colin Scott, or call +44 (0)2380 711 860.