Description

Summary: photograph, Normandy Lane, taken from the air of coastal flooding along shoreline of New Forest, Hampshire, 17.12.1989

Identification note: Despite the shelter provided by the Isle of Wight, the coast between Keyhaven and Lymington has experienced its fair share of flooding by the sea. During the last 100 years, there were particularly bad coastal floods in 1916, 1950 and 1989/90, when sea walls were breached and large areas of low-lying land were drowned by sea water. The worst floods occur at times of severe weather, particularly when there is a combination of very strong winds, high tides and extremely low atmospheric pressure. The impact of such storm surges is to change the coastline, albeit usually only temporarily. However, frequent flood events have often prompted people to take defensive actions that deliberately change the coastline. Such actions include building sea walls and straightening out the coastline.