Research focus

Colliery Spoil Coastlines, Coastal Erosion & Legacy Pollution

My recent work investigates how historically modified coastlines respond to erosion, storms, and environmental change — and how legacy industrial waste can continue to shape coastal resilience and environmental risk decades after disposal has ceased.

39–47 million m³
estimated volume of colliery spoil deposited on the County Durham coastline during the twentieth century
12 km
length of coastline strongly affected by spoil dispersal, shoreline progradation, and subsequent erosion
500,000 m³
estimated spoil volume removed by coastal erosion between 2010 and 2023

Understanding an Anthropogenic Coastline

Along the County Durham coast in northeast England, colliery spoil was deposited directly onto beaches for much of the twentieth century. These sediment inputs fundamentally altered coastal morphology, extending shorelines seaward, changing sediment connectivity, and creating extensive spoil terraces that continue to erode today.

My work combines geomorphological monitoring, remote sensing, LiDAR analysis, coastal imaging systems, sediment analysis, and field survey to quantify how these artificial coastal systems evolve and how erosion processes influence environmental risk.

The Durham spoil coast provides a rare long-term case study of how large-scale human sediment inputs continue to influence coastal behaviour, erosion patterns, and pollutant release decades after deposition ended.

Long-Term Coastal Evolution

A major strand of this work has been reconstructing the long-term geomorphological evolution of the Durham spoil coast. Our research shows that the spoil deposits effectively acted as an unplanned mixed sediment mega-nourishment, altering shoreline position, sediment pathways, and alongshore connectivity.

Following the cessation of tipping, some parts of the coast experienced rapid retreat, while the modern shoreline remains substantially seaward of its pre-industrial position. The behaviour of the system continues to change through time, with erosion impacts migrating downdrift and through different coastal compartments.

Coastal Erosion & Pollution Fluxes

Through the UKRI-funded Legacy Wastes in the Coastal Zone programme, I lead geomorphological investigations into erosion and contaminant mobilisation along the Durham spoil coast. This work is focused on quantifying how storm-driven erosion remobilises legacy industrial material and transfers contaminants into coastal environments.

Our research shows that contaminant release from these sites is strongly linked to the physical erosion and particulate dispersal of spoil material. This has important implications for understanding environmental risk at legacy coastal waste sites, particularly as climate change alters storm exposure, erosion rates, and coastal management pressures.

Emerging Contaminants & Coastal Waste

More recently, my work has expanded to examine emerging contaminant risks associated with eroding coastal waste deposits, including PFAS release from legacy coastal landfills. By combining geomorphological change analysis with contaminant flux estimation, this research helps assess how physical erosion may act as an overlooked pathway for pollutant release into coastal and estuarine waters.

Research Themes

  • Coastal erosion and shoreline change
  • Legacy pollution and contaminant mobilisation
  • Geomorphological monitoring
  • LiDAR and remote sensing
  • Storm impacts and coastal resilience
  • Anthropogenic sediment systems
  • Coastal landfill erosion
  • Coastal risk and environmental management

Selected Papers

Long-term coastal dynamics: The evolution of a mixed sediment mega-nourishment consisting of colliery spoil

This paper reconstructs the long-term evolution of the County Durham spoil coast and shows how colliery spoil acted as an unplanned mixed sediment mega-nourishment, with lessons for future large-scale coastal adaptation and nourishment schemes.

Read paper

Processes affecting pollution fluxes during the coastal erosion of legacy colliery wastes

This study quantifies erosion-driven contaminant fluxes from legacy colliery spoil, showing how particulate dispersion during coastal erosion can mobilise potentially toxic elements including arsenic, lead, mercury, and zinc.

Read paper

How Important Is Solid Phase PFAS Release from Legacy Coastal Landfills to the Water Environment?

This paper examines PFAS release from eroding historical coastal landfill sites and demonstrates how solid-phase erosion may represent an overlooked pathway for contaminant transfer to coastal waters.

Read paper

Collaboration

This work is undertaken in collaboration with researchers and stakeholders across academia, consultancy, government, and environmental organisations, including HaskoningDHV, the National Trust, regional coastal monitoring programmes, and university partners.

If you are interested in collaboration relating to coastal resilience, coastal monitoring, environmental risk, or legacy coastal pollution, please get in touch.

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