Future?
There appears to be no let up in the rate of recent change on the estuary. Proposals for further development continue, and the new challenge of sustainability is starting to be recognised. The recognition of the estuary as an internationally important wildlife area, awareness of its valuable archaeological heritage, and the importance of a healthy, pollution free estuary raise the bar further for what we must do to achieve this vision of sustainable development. Alongside this comes increasing opportunities for tapping the estuary’s resources, such as renewable power.
Sea level rise, like that which our ancestors had to deal with on the estuary, also faces us in the future. We cannot move inland as easily as they did however, and how we deal with the rising sea level is surely one of the biggest challenges facing the estuary in the future.