VEAT NOTICE: Accommodation and IT costs for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring team at the University of Plymouth

Teignbridge District Council are acting as the lead authority for the South West Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme (SWRCMP) which is 100% funded by the Environment Agency (EA).

This programme is the largest of the National Coastal Monitoring Programme regions, encompassing 2450 km of coast between Portland Bill in Dorset and Beachley Point on the border with Wales. It was established in 2006 and is in its 4th phase of EA funding (2006-2011, 2011-2016, 2016-2021, 2021-2027). The funding for this phase is over £9.5m.

The programme collects different types of coastal monitoring data, including topographic beach survey data, bathymetric data, LiDAR, aerial photography and habitat mapping. The Programme also has a network of 13 directional wave buoys and tide gauges around the South West coast. This data feeds into a long term dataset showing changes to the beaches and coastline of the South West. It allows us, working with Risk Management Authorities, to better understand the processes affecting our coast ensuring that coastal defence schemes are designed based on reliable information.

Our data is made available via our coastal website which is the show case for our monitoring programme. Home - SWRCMP (coastalmonitoring.org)

Since 2006 the coastal monitoring team (known as Plymouth Coastal Observatory, PCO) have been based at the University of Plymouth renting two rooms, one as an office and one for their surveying equipment. The Programme’s large data archives, currently around 30Tb, are stored on the University’s system.

The Programme is funded in phases, with this phase from 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2023. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have not yet signed the contract for them to host PCO from 01 April 2021 so, although this waiver is including all costs for this phase, theoretically the first two years are already owed to the University. Money has been set aside in the Programme’s budget for this.