Bed level change within the Tollesbury managed realignment site, Blackwater estuary, Essex, UK between 1995 and 2007

At the Tollesbury Managed Realignment site (TL 960 110), prior to breaching the sea wall in August 1995, twenty 2 metre wide transects were randomly located within the site to measure sedimentation rates. Twenty measurements were taken at fixed positions along each transect relative to an aluminium bar placed across a pair of permanent wooden posts at either end of each transect. The height from the aluminium bar to the salt marsh surface was measured using a ruler to the nearest millimetre. Measurements were recorded in a field note book.

Data from these transects were collected monthly from September 1995 to 1998, bimonthly up to 2000 and then in April and September to 2007. In April 1999, five additional sediment transects were set up inside the site in areas thought to be eroding, and were not covered by the 20 transects already in place. Data from these transects were collected in April and September to 2007.

Data was transposed from the field notebook into an Excel spreadsheet. Data were exported as a comma separated value file for ingestion into the EIDC.