Gosport 26

Promenade at Stokes Bay Beach at Stokes Bay

Improving Gosport's Sea Defences

Three different locations fall under the banner of The Gosport Coastal Defence Scheme. Improvements to existing flood defences in Alverstoke, Forton and Seafield will help to mitigate the effects of sea-level rise and climate change.

The scheme is of key importance to the Borough as these areas are at the highest risk of flooding. The measures being put in place across the locations include new reinforced concrete flood walls, removable flood boards and a floodgate that will span the width of a road during flood events.

The Schemes align with The River Hamble to Portchester Strategy adopted by the Gosport Borough Council and the Environment Agency in 2015. Stokes Bay

The Future is bright for the Bay

With its recreational amenities and historical buildings, a rejuvenated coastal defence system will ensure that people and nature will be able to continue to live and work in the area alongside the changing face of our climate.

View of St Mary’s Church over Alverstoke Lake

Fareham

An opportunity to create new intertidal habitat

The Solent coastline is facing significant pressure from rising sea levels, more frequent and bigger storms, and increased flood and erosion risk. As a result, important coastal habitats such as saltmarshes are slowly being lost as they are squeezed against existing sea defences. Hook Lake has been chosen as a potential area to create new coastal habitat to offset these losses in the Hamble Estuary and the wider Solent. The creation of new compensatory habitat will help to offset habitat losses today and in the future from new defence schemes. This new habitat must be reinstated to enable future coastal defence schemes in our area to progress. “Coastal Partners are instrumental in the habitat creation study at Hook Lake. When complete, the project will help compensate against loss of intertidal habitats, bringing multiple benefits to the environment and local community”

Cllr Simon Martin, Executive Member for Planning and Development, Fareham Borough Council.

Hook Lake Coastal Management Study

Why Hook Lake?

Hook Lake has been chosen as it has the required characteristics for intertidal habitat to thrive and it is already managed as a nature reserve. Historical maps indicate that the site was previously a tidal inlet with Hook River forming a tributary of the Hamble Estuary.

The size and topography of the site means there is space for a variety of habitats to be created ranging from mudflat and saltmarsh, brackish and land-based habitats, and for these habitats to naturally adapt to sea level rise over time. Hook Lake Reed Beds Hook Lake Spit