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Value - State 3, Vegetated shingle structures
This state may be considered to be the ideal form both the nature conservation
and sea defence points of view. The presence of vegetation implies a degree
of stability and is strongly correlated with State
2. Here the natural processes associated with accreting (and eroding)
shingle shores provide new surfaces for vegetation growth.
- Nature conservation
- Maritime and terrestrial vegetation zonations including significant lichen
and bryophytes;
- Stable vegetation types exhibiting specialist communities and associated
animals (especially invertebrates);
- Provide protection for other habitats, notably saltmarshes and lagoons;
- Landscape and cultural
- The larger structures can be major features in the landscape;
- Some sites, such as Dungeness
are a significant landscapes in their own right
- They can be remote places;
- Wide beaches are valuable local amenity (sunbathing etc.);
- Coastal defence and economic
- Strong sea defence structures, with a reservoir of material for mobilisation
during storms;
- Sites for military use;
- Sites for caravans and housing;
- Water abstraction;
- Close proximity of cooling water for power stations.
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