Check your coastal erosion risk (National Coastal Erosion Risk Management map)

Coastal erosion risk

We show coastal erosion risk as three coloured bands on the map for the:

• short-term, 2005 to 2025
• medium-term, 2005 to 2055
• long-term, 2005 to 2105

Check coastal erosion risk on a map (National Coastal Erosion Risk Management map):

Erosion estimates

The coloured bands show the mid range (50 percentile confidence) erosion estimate as land loss in metres for each time period. The land loss is measured from the position of the cliff edge as it was in 2005.

Click on the bands to also see the lower (95 percentile confidence) to upper (5 percentile confidence) estimates in text boxes.

'Percentile confidence' means how certain we are that erosion will reach a position by a point in time.

95 percentile confidence means we're 95% certain that erosion will reach this position by a specified point in time. 5 percentile confidence means we're 5% certain that erosion will reach this position by a specified point in time.

There are sections of coastline on the map where no coastal erosion risk estimates exist: 

• we generally don't include details of geologically complex areas, known as 'complex cliffs'. This is because there are uncertainties with predicting the timing and extent of erosion at these locations
• where the coast is flat or low-lying, flood risk from the sea is the main risk

Erosion scenarios

You can switch between two scenarios on the map: 

• no active intervention. This means the risk if there is no investment in coastal defences and the coastline evolves naturally
• following Shoreline Management Plan policies. This means the risk when following the Shoreline Management Plan policies shown below

Flood risk from the sea

The map also shows your risk of flooding from the sea. 

You can also search for an address to check the risk from of flooding from rivers, the sea, surface water and small watercourses.

Managing coastal risk

Coastal risk means the risk of coastal erosion and flooding from the sea. Our map shows how these risks are being managed in your area.

Every coastal area in Wales has one of four different policies for managing the coast. These are called Shoreline Management Plan policies:

• Hold the line: by maintaining or changing the existing standard of protection
• Advance the line: by building new defences on the seaward side of the original defences (although none applied in Wales)
• Managed realignment: which allows the shoreline to move backwards and forwards, with management to control or limit the movement
• No active intervention: where there is no investment in coastal defences and natural processes are allowed to continue to create an evolving coastline

These policies cover short-term (2005-2025), medium-term (2025-2055), long-term (2055-2105). 

In some locations, the approach to shoreline management will change over time, for instance from hold the line to managed realignment or no active intervention.

GIS data

You can download many of the map layers from DataMapWales.

Disclaimer for coastal erosion risk map

The data in this map is for guidance only. It gives risk for an area, not individual properties. 

The data in the map describes the upper and lower range estimates of erosion risk at a location. The data does not estimate the absolute location of the future coastline.

Please read the Disclaimer for our flood and coastal erosion risk mapping that applies in respect of our coastal erosion risk map.