The Cuckmere Estuary is situated in the Seven Sisters Country Park in East Sussex, and lies within the South Downs National Park (Figure 1). This is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. As you can see in Figure 2, the river is formed of two parts. It was bypassed in 1846 by a canal to the west of the original meanders. The aim of this bypass was to reduce flooding and allow more efficient navigation of the river. The Cuckmere remains famous for its large meanders, which have become a lake rather than part of the river.
Being an estuary, the area requires both river and coastal management (see the annotations on Figure 2). The estuary environment is altering due to rising sea levels, change from ongoing fluvial and coastal processes (such as longshore drift and erosion of 0.3–0.4 m per year), and deterioration of the coastal defences.
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