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Across Europe, economic development has physically altered coastal and transitional waters for navigation, trading activities, flood and erosion control, urbanisation and tourism. These activities are driving forces for hydromorphological alterations. Natural structural and functional elements such as habitat composition, sediment and water flow of coastal and transitional waters have been modified with bank and flood protection structures, dams, land reclamation, dredging, port and marine facilities construction.

The impact of global warming and climate change is becoming increasingly important in coastal areas due to expected  sea level rise and due to increased probability of storm surges and associated coastal floods. People are increasingly occupying low-lying areas that are exposed to flooding, thus exacerbating the vulnerability of coastal systems to extreme events. The importance and scale of coastal defences will thus increase, with potentially commensurate environmental impacts (OSPAR Commission, 2009:14).

Note: An overview of coastal erosion management techniques (hard and soft) is presented in EC DG ENV publication of EUROSION project (Annex II), 2004. Data from this project is used in this report.