The intention of this network proposal is for an artist, Simon Read and coastal scientist, Helene Burningham to collaborate with a community partnership, the Deben Estuary Partnership (DEP) on the consultation exercise leading to an estuary management plan. The context for this is the need to reach beyond opinion to a resolution that fuses interpretation of available data, stakeholder need and the passionate connection that a community has to its landscape. Historically, where an estuary strategy is government agency led, the parameters are already constrained by established determinants such as Flood Risk Management and the obligation to conserve intertidal habitat. Where in the past it has been found at public consultation stage that this can lead to discord, the DEP has sought to harmonise the process by adopting a more integrated approach to link stakeholder interest to a more informed understanding of estuary systems and how they are likely to change in the future In 2015, the DEP published an estuary plan that was both endorsed by the Environment Agency and adopted by the local planning authority. Now however, due to a change in local government there is a need to review and revise this document to align with a new Local Plan. It is coincidental that many of the actions proposed in the existing management plan have come to pass, including extensive improvement to the capability of the flood defences and an enhanced appreciation of the value of saltmarsh. In the interim so much has changed: climate change continues to drive sea level rise, putting pressure upon intertidal habitat, sustainability of flood defences and causing saline intrusion into the groundwater. Pressure for housing will cause an increase in visitor numbers and footfall, increasing levels of disturbance around the estuary, as will the agreement over the route for the Coastal Path. Disturbance has also been caused in the estuary landscape by the installation of infrastructure for the Anglia 1 offshore wind turbine array. Given these pressures and the Deben may become the victim of its own popularity both afloat and ashore, it is not an option to just update the existing management plan. This has led the DEP to decide to focus upon the nature of change, what evidence there may be in the estuary, what a future scenario may look like and what strategies should be put in place to adapt and to manage it. Since many changes in landscape are so incremental that communities may not be aware of their significance, it will be a challenge to develop a format for a discussion about how to build a management plan around the certainties and uncertainties to be faced in future. Since the conditions that both affect and respond to change are profoundly cultural as much as factual, it makes sense that an arts and science team might collaborate with the DEP to devise a programme of workshops for community members to accumulate and negotiate evidence for the estuary plan. The proposal is to generate six workshop events through 2000-2001 to explore themes relating to understanding change in the context of the Deben Estuary and to make this a material discourse requiring participants to contribute to the accumulation of evidence during the project. The final workshop will be a feedback session to reflect on what has been learned, followed at the end of 2021 by an exhibition of the material produced at a suitable location in the estuary to which all participants, institutional and community stakeholders will be invited and will subsequently be open to the wider public. Our aspiration is that working in partnership with the DEP, a reflexive and reflective arts/science activity will enhance a sense of understanding of estuary systems, foster a more informed level of debate and have the potential to contribute materially to the Deben Estuary Plan.

Salt marshes exist around the globe on low-lying, low gradient coastal fringes. Amongst providing many services to society (valued at around £1,500 per hectare per year), they are valued for their ability to protect coasts from the erosive force of waves and tides, even during extreme storm surge events. They are, however, nationally and globally in decline. In the UK, the area of salt marsh reduced by 13% between 1945 and 2010 (from 37,300 to 32,500 ha). This loss has not been compensated for through marsh restoration efforts (only 1,320 ha created by 2012). There is high uncertainty as to how these natural coastal protection features (or their artificially restored or re-created equivalents) will respond to the combined effects of future changes in sea level and possible changes in the magnitude and/or frequency of storms. The grass/shrub covered surfaces of salt marshes appear remarkably resistant to storm impact. Given sufficient sediment supply, they can also 'grow' vertically to track rising sea levels. The loss of marsh area over time is therefore more often due to a landward retreat of their most seaward margin or the lateral widening off the tidal channels that drain them. These boundaries are often undercut, with marsh material loosened and removed by tidal currents and waves. Such retreat may reach several metres per year and is of great concern to coastal engineers, planners, and managers, relying on the 'storm buffering' function of these environments. We know little about the force required to 'cut into' salt marsh material (the 'substrate'). The substrate itself is composed of sediment laid down over time by the tides, alongside organic materials resulting from plant growth and invertebrates living in the soil. Its resistance to wave or tidal forces therefore varies within and between marshes. But this resistance has not, so far, been measured in a way that allows coastal engineers to take it into account when predicting the impact of future environmental scenarios (e.g. greater water depths and stronger tidal currents or waves). In this project, we will sample and analyse in detail the substrate of a more sandy (Warton, Morecambe Bay) and a more muddy (Dengie, Essex) marsh, as well as of two restored marshes (two East coast managed realignment sites) and their adjacent natural equivalents. We will determine what these substrates are composed of, how this varies between and within each of these marshes and how it affects the resistance of the marsh substrate to wave and tidal forces. State-of-the-art technology (unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or 'drones') and the latest satellite products will then allow us to produce a map of the physical marsh vulnerability of marsh systems, both in their entirety and within marsh, to these types of forces. Coastal planners, engineers, and managers will benefit through being able to better predict marsh loss into the future and design suitable preventative measures. Anyone watching our three-part documentary short film series will benefit through a better understanding of the scientific methods we use. The global community already using existing satellite products built into web-based tools for assessing the coastal protection function of salt marshes will benefit by being able to access predictions of the resistance to wave/tide erosion that we will build into those tools.