Identifying a local environmental problem 

Coastal erosion is not a new problem in the East of England. It has been happening for centuries. Dunwich is a village very close to our school. It now has less than 200 inhabitants, but it was once, during the Middle Ages, the second largest city in the East of England and one of the most important ports in the country. This was possible because sediments brought by the current from other shores in Norfolk and Yorkshire built a natural harbour. The coastal erosion in other places further north benefited the Dunwich location.

But the same phenomenon that brought progress to Dunwich caused its downfall when the harbour entrance was closed with more sediments brought by the current. The city lost its port and rapidly decayed. Eventually, the area itself was eroded and the city lies today under the sea. The sequence of images below show All Saints Church, the last church of the old city of Dunwich that had its last tower claimed by the sea in 1919.

Working with satellite images and data 

We worked with the Copernicus browser to analyse the recession of the cliffs in Happisburgh and the elevation profile in critical areas. We chose to use Sentinel-2, since it "provides high-resolution images in the visible and infrared wavelengths, to monitor vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas" (Copernicus Browser), which is what we needed. The Copernicus Browser provided images from 2016 

Looking at the soils under the microscope, we could see that the clay has the finest particles, followed by the silt, with the sand having the largest particles. The finest particles of the clay give it very low permeability, while the particles of sand, being larger, let water in easily. That means that when it rains, the sand lets the water pass and, when it reaches the clay, the water stops as it cannot penetrate that layer, creating a giant "puddle" which places a huge weight on the clay. This also makes the sand more likely to slide down the cliff, increasing erosion.

When we poured some water over the soil samples, we could see the particles being washed from the piece of soil. This happened with both the clay, the silt and the sand, although the sand was clearly more vulnerable. This shows how fragile the soil is when in contact with water

 The pictures below show samples of clay, silt and sand collected from the cliffs in Happisburgh when dry and when wet, showing some particles easily washed away, and images of the soils observed on a microscope, augmented 4 times, which shows the difference in the particle sizes.

Sand from Happisburgh cliffs

 Silt from Happisburgh cliffs    

 Clay from Happisburgh cliffs 

Although rain plays an important part on the erosion of the cliffs, the main cause of the erosion is the sea hitting and wetting the cliffs during high tides, and storms from the North or North-East, which rise the sea level even more and cause strong waves which crash on the cliffs. 

Interview with a resident 

We interviewed Patrice Baldwin, a Happisburgh resident and home owner.

These are the questions we asked her:

1) How long have you been living in Happisburgh?

2) Why have you chosen to move here? Were you aware of the risks by then?

3) Is your house endangered by coastal erosion?

4) How are you affected by the coastal erosion in Happisburgh?

5) How do you feel about the Council's decision not to renovate the sea defences?

6) Can you talk about what you saw on those years regarding coastal erosion? Any particular bad   year? Good year?

7) If you were to describe a perfect scenario for Happisburgh, if there were no restrictions, what       would it be?

8) Are you involved with the Save Happisburgh campaign? If so, can you talk about its aims and   struggles? How are you involved?

9) Are you concerned about climate change?

10) What message would you tell the world about coastal erosion and climate change?

11) Anything else you would like to say?

Patrice moved to Happisburgh in January 1991, so she has been there for 34 years. She moved there because it was beautiful and was not aware of coastal erosion, even though her mum warned her about it.

 She lives one field away from the cliffs and her house is endangered, although not as much as some of the other houses in the Beach Road area. She said Happisburgh is not entitled to sea defences because it depends "on the number of chimneys" and Happisburgh does not have enough.

 She thinks it is unfair that Happisburgh does not get any sea defences, especially since lots of places around it do. She thinks this increase the erosion at Happisburgh. She spoke about how when they get a high tide combined with a storm from the North-East, the erosion is very intense, sometimes taking meters overnight.

 She cited 1953 as a very bad year because of the flood (although she was just a baby then). She also acknowledged 2013, because of the storm surge of December 5th, when a bungalow in Happisburgh was left hanging on the cliff edge.

 She is not part of the "Save Happisburgh" campaign, but sometimes attends the meeting. She sees the campaign as a huge and important effort from residents, but she does not see any changes coming from it, since Happisburgh never seems to qualify for defences. 

She is very concerned about climate change, and believes countries are too late on taking action. She said that if not all countries work together to fight it, no effect will be achieved. In an ideal world, she would like to see sea defences in Happisburgh and not so much bad publicity about the village. 

She also would like people to receive compensation for their houses when they need to be demolished so they can restart their lives somewhere else. She feels powerless, since nothing can be done: The residents cannot even purchase rocks to add to the ones on the beach. 

She said that the village is slowly disappearing, since no young people have come to live there. Lots of houses are being bought and rented as holiday accommodation and no new houses can be built in the area. She cited, for example, that the local primary school had an intake of only 3 new children this current school year.

Interview with a business owner 

We interviewed Chris Lomax, the owner of the Caravan Park in Happisburgh.

These are the questions we asked him:

1) How long have you had the Caravan Park at Happisburgh?

2) We saw that the park used to be next to the cliffs, and it moved to the site where it is now not that long ago. Why did you move it? Was your business affected by the move?

3) Did you invest a lot of money into moving your caravan park? Why do you choose to keep running the park? Have you considered leaving Happisburgh and maybe having a caravan park somewhere else?

4) Was the site of the old caravan park yours? If so, do you still own it? What happened to the site?

5) How do you feel about the Council's decision not to renovate the sea defences?

6) Can you talk about what you saw on those years regarding coastal erosion?

7) If you were to describe a perfect scenario for Happisburgh, if there were no restrictions, what would it be?

8) Are you involved with the Save Happisburgh campaign? If so, can you talk about its aims and struggles? How are you involved?

9) Are you concerned about climate change?

10) What message would you tell the world about coastal erosion and climate change?

11) Anything else you would like to say?

The Caravan Park has been in Chris' family for 60 years. He had to move his caravan park further inland in 2009 because he had lost a great park of his land to the sea and was running with only 2/3 of the caravans he was allowed to.

 He did not get any compensations or incentives to move. On the contrary, he had to buy the new land and get planning permission. This was first denied, so he spent extra money with lawyers and the process for the construction to be approved. He only managed to sell the land of the old caravan park in February 2025 (the day we were interviewing him!). The Council bought it, but he does not know what they plan to do on the land.

He told us he is not too worried about sea defences now that he has moved further inland, since his caravan park is not in danger. However, he feels for the people whose houses are close to the cliffs and thinks they should be compensated somehow. When we asked if he lived in Happisburgh, he said: "Who would want to live here?", making a reference to the houses having to be demolished, the owners having to pay for demolition and residents feeling neglected. 

He is not involved with the "Save Happisburgh" campaign. He said residents are always getting together and organising themselves to try to save the village. He spoke about the Path Finder project, which was getting funds and buying the endangered houses so people could move further inland.

 When we researched about this project, we found out they were the ones who bought all the houses in Beach Road and demolished them in 2012/2013. However, this project does not exist anymore and there is no support for the people who are losing their homes. Just like Patrice, he thinks we are too late in our fight against climate change, and believes that the whole world needs to work together to slow it down, but is very skeptical and thinks this will not happen because governments are selfish and just want votes, which they will get with short-term actions. 

His message to the world: "Wake up! If the coast keeps on eroding this fast, it won't be a problem only for the coastal villages; the sea will flood a lot of land and a lot of people will be affected."

Interview with an engineer from the North Norfolk District Council 

We interviewed Fiona Keenaghan, a coastal engineer from the Coastal Management Team at North Norfolk District Council.

These are the questions we asked her:

1) What is the policy regarding sea defences in North Norfolk?

2) Why doesn't Happisburgh fit in the constraints of the places with sea defences?

3) How do you respond to the house owners when a house needs demolishing because of coastal erosion?

4) Can you talk about the feasibility of installing sea defences? Costs? Environmental effects? Anything else?

5) If the people in a village raise money and build the sea defences privately to save their village, would that be allowed?

6) Are you aware of the "Save Happisburgh" campaign? If so, how does the Council deal with the people from the campaign?

7) If you were to describe a perfect scenario, if there were no money restrictions, would that change the council's decisions?

8) Anything else you would like to add?

Fiona told us the policy for Happisburgh is "Managed Realignment", which means that you move important constructions further inland and let erosion continue naturally, without interference of new sea defences. The Coastal Management Team receives money from the government and the environmental agency each year to protect villages. The council wants to do as much as possible but they get very little money so they only put sea defences where there are many businesses and properties. Since Happisburgh only has 1400 people and very few businesses, it is not eligible to have sea defences. 

When a resident loses a house, they do not get any compensation or support towards relocation; they have to pay for their own house to be demolished. There is a programme from the government called Coastwise that sometimes can help residents with the cost of demotion, but it will end in 2027. She also told us that building sea defences in one location can lead to a worse negative impact further down the current, so this also needs to be considered when analysing where to build sea defences.

Fiona spoke to us about something called coastal catch-up. She said that, when sea defences are removed or fail, the rate of erosion increases until it reaches where the cliffs would be had the defences never been there. According to this, erosion rates should slow down at some point in Happisburgh.

She also told us how Shell UK Ltd and Perenco UK Ltd funded the sandscaping scheme at Bacton, to protect the gas terminal. She said that business and even residents can fund defences, but they need planning for the construction and for the continuation of the schemes, which are all very expensive. She is aware that residents from Happisburgh feel abandoned and she guaranteed that, although they do not necessarily believe it, the sandscaping scheme in Bacton will help Happisburgh, which will get sediments brought from Bacton.

Coastal erosion in Happisburgh is not linear. Some years nature is kind and the erosion slows down, while in others erosion is very severe. However, through the years, it does not seem to slow down. Happisburgh has a very high rate of erosion and is not entitled sea defences. Climate change will raise sea levels and increase the number of storms, which will further increase erosion rates, since the sea will reach higher layers of the cliffs, which are very vulnerable to the sea and the waves hitting it.

There is no plan for sea defences in Happisburgh, since the population is small and it lands on the "managed realignment" category. Because of coastal catch-up, erosion rates might decrease slightly in the future, but the projections are not promising, especially if climate change is not slowed down. Happisburgh might see his listed buildings being demolished in the next 80 years.

We only have satellite data since 2017, so the study is limited, since we could not get precise data from before that date. However, although not as precise, we could see that the erosion rates were also fast since 1996 through aerial photos and Google Earth, especially after the sea defences failed.

Residents and business owners feel let down, neglected and ignored. Happisburgh is a lively community that is dying. Houses are being demolished, and few people want to live or invest there, reducing the population. Happisburgh might have the same fate as the old Dunwich and become a ghost village or even just a tourist spot before it all erodes into the sea.

Despite all that, the council does not have enough funds to build sea defences for all the towns and villages on the coastline. Also, building sea defences in one place affects the coast further down the current, increasing erosion there and, sometimes, creating an even bigger problem.

Actions

Unfortunately, building sea defences everywhere is not feasible. The only way to slow down erosion in Happisburgh is to slow down climate change. This will only happen if the whole world works together. Happisburgh is just a tiny example of a community suffering from the effects of climate change. It is our responsibility to demand that governments follow the plan they submitted for the Paris Agreement and that countries support each other in meeting the targets. The more people who are conscious of the damage that climate change has done and will do to our world, the louder the voice demanding actions.

We also think that Happisburgh residents need to be supported so they do not feel abandoned. By making their voices reach more people, we want the government to take action so that they feel safe that they will have a place to live once the sea claims their house. The government should allocate resources to help this and other communities rebuild their lives and not feel powerless.

We want to spread the word, so these voices get louder. We are presenting the project to our school during an event with students and families next term. We also plan to present it at local schools, both around our area and in Norfolk. We created a website, so people can access the results of our project anywhere in the world, and we are starting to use the hashtag #HappisburghClimateDetectives to spread the word on social media. We want people to see that Happisburgh is not just a village falling into the sea: it is a rich community which deserves to feel seen and safe.

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