In response to increased coastal flood events and resulting damages, the Environment Agency of the United Kingdom delivered a GBP 27 million project to realign the defences inland, providing significantly improved flood defences to allow for managed flooding. Medmerry was historically protected by a narrow shingle embankment, holding back only the very smallest coastal storms. This posed significant actual and potential risks to life and caused damage to property and infrastructure with increased flood events, and the additional coastal squeeze caused losses of coastal habitat. With the help of IUCN, a full assessment against the criteria and indicators of the IUCN Global Standard for NbS was
conducted.