Chichester Harbour Investment & Adaptation Plan

The Chichester Harbour Investment and Adaptation Plan (CHIAP) represents a long-term commitment to the harbour, its communities and its ecology and is based from the outset about being driven through community engagement and partnership working.

CHIAP will improve the resilience of local communities relating to flood risk and rising sea levels resulting from climate change. It will reflect best practice in capturing local needs and issues throughout the harbour, whilst addressing issues in a sustainable and practical way.

CHIAP will not only support landowners and communities through changes in how they use and interact with the landscape as a result of rising sea levels, but also work towards improving the internationally important ecology of the harbour. This will be through both improving and increasing suitable natural assets such as saltmarsh, which will help provide living and adaptive assets to improve local flood and storm resilience. This will lead to additional benefits such as increased biodiversity and carbon storage.

Collaboration is key - and through relevant communities and stakeholders actively participating in CHIAP, it will establish the mechanisms and means for providing long-term, ongoing flood resilience for Chichester Harbour. Locally informed projects will protect and enhance the harbour landscape into the future.

With funding secured in 2025 from Chichester District Council, Havant Borough Council, the Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Grant in Aid and Local Levy (via the Southern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee),  work is now underway on auditing the harbour's defences and developing a public face for the CHIAP offer.

A dedicated website and brand will be developed for CHIAP in the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any enquiries at this stage about CHIAP please use the Coastal Partners contact page.