Crown

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires the development of an Adaptation Programme to take forward the risks identified within the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (UK-CCRA). The UK-CCRA anticipates increases in sea level, coastal erosion and coastal flooding to increasingly affect Scotland’s soft coastlines and the assets found on these coasts. Shoreline Management Plans have been produced for only short sections of the Scottish coast which limits the information available to coastal managers. Consequently a National Coastal Change Assessment (NCCA) has been commissioned by the Scottish Government and is supported by a number of agencies.

This data was created to display the inland extent of projected coastal erosion, based on recent change (between the 1970s and Modern MHWS position). It displays four polygon data sets via the 'Change_Direction': Erosion (areas seawards of the 2050 projected position of Mean High Water Springs), Erosion Influence (a 10m landward buffer of the projected position of 2050 MHWS) and Erosion Vicinity (a further 50m landward buffer on Erosion Influence) and Accretion (a 5m buffer on MHWS where MHWS has moved seawards between 1970s and Modern data). This data contains the intersect values for society's assets (lengths of roads (km), areas of designates sites (ha)). This data was analysed as part of the‘Dynamic Coast’Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment, see www.dynamiccoast.com for more info.

This layer is part of a series of Scottish Natural Heritage Web Map Service (WMS) layers. The layers are best viewed at 1:433,434 or better as they are slow to draw.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires the development of an Adaptation Programme to take forward the risks identified within the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (UK-CCRA). The UK-CCRA anticipates increases in sea level, coastal erosion and coastal flooding to increasingly affect Scotland’s soft coastlines and the assets found on these coasts. Shoreline Management Plans have been produced for only short sections of the Scottish coast which limits the information available to coastal managers. Consequently a National Coastal Change Assessment (NCCA) has been commissioned by the Scottish Government and is supported by a number of agencies.

This layer shows Mean High Water Spring, digitised from OS National Grid 1:10,560/1:10,000 sheets. Epoch 1956 to 1995. Extent: Soft or Erodible shorelines. This data was digitised as part of ‘Dynamic Coast’ Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment, see www.dynamiccoast.com for more info.

This layer is part of a series of Scottish Natural Heritage Web Map Service (WMS) layers. The layers are best viewed at 1:433,434 or better as they are slow to draw.

Regional marine planning will be undertaken by Marine Planning Partnerships, which will be made up of marine stakeholders who reflect marine interests in their region. The partnerships will vary in size and composition depending on the area, issues to be dealt with and the existing groups. Local Authorities, Inshore Fisheries Groups, Local Coastal Partnerships and their umbrella body, the Scottish Coastal Forum, will play a role in the development of regional plans. The 11 areas where MPPs can be established are defined in the 'Scottish Marine Regions Order 2015’ 

Regional marine planning powers will be delegated to the Partnerships by Scottish Ministers. These powers will not include licensing or consenting as these will remain the responsibility of consenting bodies such as Marine Scotland and Local Authorities.

This study repeated a survey carried out between 2002 and 2010 at sites along the entire rocky coastline of Scotland. The 2014/15 survey was extended to include the Shetland Islands. The main aim of the study was to look for changes in the geographical distribution and abundance of species in the context of recent climate change – principally temperature change – on both short- and long-term timescales. Rising sea surface temperature has been, and continues to be, a general trend seen since 1980. But no increase in temperature was recorded between 2010 and 2014. No northward range extensions of species reaching their poleward geographical range limits were evident. The study did, however, note changes in abundance across Scotland: declines in blue mussel and increases in macroalgae were recorded. A Community Temperature Index was developed to measure spatial and temporal changes in the balance of a suite of warm and cold water species. There was a slight shift towards cold water species between 2002–2010 and 2014–2015.