Introduction
This site is designed to act as the collection point for the information and survey data that has been, and will be, obtained as part of the Wallasea Wetland Creation Project as well as being an online informative stakeholder tool.
The Wallasea project is being carried out by DEFRA with support from the landowner (Wallasea Farms Ltd) and with advice from English Nature, the Environment Agency and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
It involves the creation of new coastal habitat through the ‘realignment’ of sea defences on a low-lying area of land beside the Crouch Estuary. This habitat creation is designed to compensate for losses of saltmarsh and mudflat (and the seabird species that used them) that occurred following past port developments on the east coast. This project also serves to enhance the levels of flood protection afforded to the agricultural land behind the new sea wall.
On behalf of DEFRA, ABPmer have contributed to the scheme design and the impact assessment work that accompanied this project and we are now conducting a 5-year monitoring programme to describe how it develops over time. The monitoring period which began in February 2006 (five months before the breaching work which was in June/July 2006) and will continue until December 2012. At the end of this period, decisions will be made about how well the site has developed and what further work may be needed.
This web-site will present the information obtained during this 5-year programme and will complement the DEFRA site which contains further details about the objective of, and background to, this project as well as information about the consultation work that has supported this project.
Using either the navigation tabs above or the sitemap 
you will be able to find a range of details including: - maps
which describe
the site, photographs
which show the changes over time, continuous ‘live’ web camera
images (updated every hour), reports and links to other related projects
and research initiatives as well as contact details for those involved
at DEFRA
and
ABPmer.
