As climate change alters sea levels, the UK’s coastal habitats and agricultural lands face unprecedented threats. Saltmarshes, a rich habitat which are crucial for coastal biodiversity, carbon storage and flood defence are at risk.

Rewilding Coastal Landscapes speculates what coastal landscapes could look like by 2050. With a potential 1-metre sea level rise in 30 years’ time, how can we design a resilient, functional landscape for more than humans?

By restoring saltmarshes, functional landscapes can emerge to address flood protection, carbon capture, and a new floodable agriculture. The project explores high-tech human interventions to low-tech rewilding tactics in shaping the land. The space evolves into a dynamic landscape, facilitating phased interventions, beginning with reshaping the coastal wall to create inland water creeks and saltmarsh habitats. Biodiversity diversifies and evolves, followed by land contouring and reintroducing keystone species and cultivating a new agriculture through harvesting salt-tolerant plants from halophytic pools. This project harmonises the ecosystem with the community as a balanced stewardship for a resilient and biodiverse future landscape.