Coastwise at Coastal Futures 2026

Date published: 25th March 2026

At the end of January 2026, some of the team represented Coastwise at the 35th annual Coastal Futures conference, held in London at the Royal Geographical Society. This is the largest ocean and coasts conference of its kind in the UK and provides delegates from the worlds of academia and coastal and marine management practice with wide-ranging coverage of critical current and future issues. 

The Coastwise project hosted a stand, where the team shared information about the work underway. We chatted with researchers and local authority officers from across the UK and further afield about a range of topics related to coastal erosion. 

North Norfolk is not the only place with accelerating coastal erosion, where there is a need to plan ahead more effectively. Conferences like this are good opportunities to share learning and strengthen our network through conversations about coastal heritage, technical processes and modelling, policy and more.  

We were there alongside the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group which is an a-political body championing the interests of coastal communities, and other projects funded through the Environment Agency and Defra’s Flood and Coast Innovation Programme. Including our ‘sister’ project, Changing Coasts East Riding.  

Dr Sophie Day (senior research associate seconded from the University of East Anglia) and Alastair Zangs (Coastwise Placemaker, North Norfolk District Council) presented a poster about our recent and ongoing work concerning transition planning for graveyards at risk of coastal erosion.  

Jaap Flikveert from Haskoning, who has been leading on some work for Coastwise with the coastal transition planning project and Cllr. Harry Blathwayt, North Norfolk District Council Portfolio Holder for Coast, presented together on stage, and they also took part in a panel discussion, sharing insights from the work we are doing in North Norfolk. 

A real highlight of this conference was seeing Floods and Water Minister Emma Hardy announce a £30M boost for coastal communities adapting to erosion. Details are yet to be established, but this will be via new Coastal Adaptation Pilots to help England’s most at-risk coastal areas prepare for climate change. Norfolk is one of the areas that will be in receipt of some of this funding.