'Using art to assist understanding of long-term coastal change'

The Crown Estate-Caird Fellowship 2008

Dr Robin McInnes OBE FICE FGS FRSA

'A view from Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth towards the Isle of Wight', William Daniell 1823. © Robin McInnes

Over the last twenty years there has been an increasing interest in establishing a sustainable framework for the management of coastal zones. This approach has necessitated improved collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders in what has become known as integrated coastal zone management. Such collaboration founded upon research into coastal evolution and sedimentary processes, together with the sharing of scientific knowledge, has become all the more important in the context of climate change.

This watercolour of Luccombe by William Gray, 1855, of the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight shows the coastline and cliff geology in great detail. The ledges were lost in landslide in 1910 and the raised ground on which they stood has since been eroded away. © Robin McInnes

There are a number of tools available to coastal managers and planning officers in Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and others involved in coastal risk management to assist them in improving their understanding of how the coastline has evolved. These include increasingly sophisticated monitoring systems taking advantage of air-borne or space-borne methods, as well as ship-borne and ground-based techniques. A further tool that can assist understanding of long-term coastal change is the use of historical resources including maps, early photographs, landscape paintings, watercolour drawings and engravings, which allow visual comparisons, over the last two hundred years, to be made; this approach can also be applied to changes in morphology, and land use patterns including coastal developments.

Map of the Scholarship Study Area © Robin McInnes

With financial support from The Crown Estate – Caird Fellowship 2008, the beneficiary, Dr Robin McInnes OBE, has combined his knowledge of coastal and geotechnical engineering with his interest in art to evaluate the importance of works of art in assisting understanding of coastal change, covering the time period from 1770-1920. The study area comprised the coastlines of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight on the coast of central southern England. This location has a high value of coastal assets, but also faces increasing levels of risk from coastal erosion, flooding and landslip as well as being of considerable environmental importance; the area was visited by many artists in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A detailed oil painting of The Hard, Gosport by Martin Snape, 1919. Courtesy: Hampshire County Council Museums and Archives Service

The study involved the development of a methodology for assessing the value of works of art in assisting understanding of long-term coastal change and the preparation of a short-list of those artists and their works that are of the greatest value in this respect. The methodology has been validated by comparison of works by different artists who painted at the same location and later by comparing paintings, drawings and prints with early photographs.

The study concluded that art contained in national and local collections represents a valuable and presently under-used resource which, alongside other technical applications, can increase our understanding of not just physical change on the coast but also environmental, social and developmental changes. Art, can therefore, be of considerable assistance to coastal managers, planners and a wide range of other stakeholders including the general public.

For more information contact: rgmcinnes@btinternet.com

See a current article in the New Scientist relating to this topic: 'Past masters of coastal geology' by Stephanie Pain (30 July 2008).