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BRITAIN’S sea defences built in the 1950s could be overwhelmed by unforeseen
tidal conditions unless the government makes them higher and stronger, warned
Howell Peregrine, an applied mathematician from the University of Bristol.
Sea walls along the North Sea coast are especially at risk.

‘Walls built after the 1953 floods are getting old,’ said Peregrine.
‘Some of them have cracks and they need repair now.’ Storm surges in 1953
engulfed large parts of Holland and eastern England, drowning hundreds of
people. Peregrine warned that the North Sea defences built at the time are
now inadequate because storms are becoming more frequent than people expected
in the 1950s, sea levels have risen, and the eastern part of England is
sinking.

But a lack of records of storms and waves for the North Sea means that
engineers lack the information to make accurate assessments for remedial
action. ‘Last year’s storms were the worst in years, but only one record
is in the public domain,’ said Peregrine. ‘We need a dozen monitoring stations
along the coast.’

Oil companies monitor the North Sea but do not make the information
public, he said. ‘At the moment, we do not know the effect of waves and
we cannot estimate what we should build. Many Third World countries do better.’