This English Town Is Letting the Sea Have Its Way

[DGUtley]

This English Town Is Letting the Sea Have Its Way

The coastal community of Selsey welcomes the return of salt marshes where farms once stood.
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As climate-fueled floods and droughts wreak havoc around the world, a hard truth is emerging: sooner or later, water always wins. But these devastating water extremes are not just due to climate change. They are made much worse by our poor development choices aimed at controlling water. The following excerpt is from the book Water Always Wins, in which Hakai contributor Erica Gies follows innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement who are instead asking a revolutionary question: What does water want?


What water wants is to reclaim its slow phases—wetlands, floodplains, mangrove forests—that we’ve erased with development. The Slow Water movement has parallels to Slow Food, drawing attention to water’s relationships with rocks, microbes, beavers, humans, and how our actions affect them. Projects work with local geology, life, climate, and cultures rather than trying to control them.[


After decades of resistance to the idea, which detractors characterized as “giving up,” some communities are embracing it. Today, managed retreat driven by pragmatism is an increasingly accepted component of government policies. One of the most ambitious programs is in the United Kingdom, which is planning a countrywide step back from the sea. With its thousands of kilometers of coastline exposed to the rough North Atlantic Ocean, the United Kingdom is mapping out where it will cease trying to hold back the sea within a decade or two. And in other places around the world, new amphibious designs embrace a way to live with water without courting regular disaster. Both managed retreat and amphibious housing are the ultimate expression of Slow Water thinking, of accepting and working within what water wants.

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https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/selsey-england-slow-water[/URL]

[Peter1469]

We have salt water marshes not far from my house in Louisiana. Best place to fish.

[FindersKeepers]

We have Cheyenne Bottoms not too far from where I live. It's a huge waterfowl area--the best time to visit is in spring or fall when the air temps dip below freezing at night. Then, in the early mornings, as the sun comes up, it creates a misty glow over the water that gives an ethereal feeling to the place.

[carolina73]

You can only push the water around for so long. We found that out in our area, where new housing tried to, fill and build, where flood waters used to go from storms. So they just started flooding adjoining neighborhoods
FEMA ended up buying the houses and letting them become flood plains again and now there is a push to heavily restrict new housing.