How to Better Manage the Rising of Ocean Water? Fill in Lagoons!

In order to better manage the rising water, the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project in Essex, UK, is transforming the island into a network of lagoons, mudflats and marshes.

“Salt marshes and mudflats sequester large quantities of carbon, so that’s helpful in terms of the climate crisis,” says Malcolm Ausden, a principal ecologist with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “Also, salt marshes in front of sea walls reduce wave action on the sea wall, so they reduce that pressure and help reduce flood risk.”

This natural and cheap alternative is a buffer against the wrath of the sea as marshes absorb coastal waves, the way mangroves swamps do in tropical environments. The project is meant to have completed 150 hectares of mudflats, 90 hectares of salt marsh and 165 hectares of shallow saline lagoons by 2025.