The RSPB's newest nature reserve at\u00a0Medmerry offers long walks and cycle rides through an amazing new landscape only a stone's throw from Pagham Harbour, with new mudflats, tidal lagoons, saltmarsh, wildlife-friendly farmland, dragonfly-rich ditches and great views and sunsets. Situated on the Manhood Peninsula\u00a0coast, south of Chichester, this is a ground breaking project and the first of its kind to realign on the open coast, the scale of the realignment is immense - the size of 300 football pitches!
\nBetween 2011-2013, the Environment Agency (EA) constructed 4.25 miles (7 km) of new floodbank inland from the sea between Selsey and Bracklesham, on one of the last undeveloped stretches of coast anywhere between Southampton and Brighton. They then breached the existing shingle beach to create the largest managed realignment scheme on the open coast in Europe, creating amazing new wetland habitats.
\nThe scheme\u00a0has greatly improve the standard of flood protection for over 300 homes, the water treatment works and the main road into Selsey. It\u00a0is in the process of\u00a0creating extensive wetland wildlife habitat designed to compensate for the loss of internationally important habitats elsewhere, and major new off-road sustainable transport routes.<\/p>\n