Drone photos reveal long-lasting impact of biggest storm surge to hit UK shores in 60 years

Credit: Dr Tony Dolphin/Cefas/PA Wire

Drone photographs mapping part of the British coastline have revealed the long-lasting impact of the biggest storm surge to hit our shores in 60 years.

A year ago today, a tidal surge devastated stretches of the east coast, damaging and destroying homes and disrupting natural habitats.

Now researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) are using remote piloted aircraft to study areas along the East Anglian coast which were hit by the surge on December 5 last year.

Although damage to flood defences was much lower in 2013 than in 1953, there was still extensive change to the coastline, damage to sea walls, and saltwater flooding, they found.

In some areas sediment was transported more than 100 metres inland, in places filling-in protected lagoon habitats.

A zoomed-out version of the first image shows the wider scale of the damage. Credit: Dr Tony Dolphin/Cefas/PA Wire

Trevor Tolhurst, lead scientist on the project, said: "This project is a once in a lifetime opportunity to collect data to improve our understanding of the impacts of a severe natural event and investigate how these events are perceived and responded to.

The work is part of a Natural Environment Research Council funded short-term project to better understand the initial environmental and social impacts caused by the 2013 storm surge and the resulting saltwater flooding.