Alexandra Tait

Dissipating Attrition

Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)

alexandratait2025@outlook.com

A visual narrative illustrating Dornoch's evolving coastline, depicting elements of planned retreat, natural regeneration, and the integration of new ecological enhancements, reflecting the 'Dissipating Attrition' project's adaptive strategies against coastal erosion and rising sea levels.

Project description

Dornoch's coastline faces severe threats from erosion and rising sea levels. The "Dissipating Attrition" project proposes a three-part strategy: Vacate, Retreat, and Extend.

Area 1 – Vacate: The northern golf course will undergo natural regeneration. This involves removing old infrastructure to prevent pollution and foster ecological recovery, enhancing biodiversity.

Area 2 – Retreat: A planned retreat will relocate people and infrastructure in phases to higher ground. An interim boardwalk will observe coastal changes. Crucially, the golf course, vital for Dornoch's economy, will be maintained by acquiring new land for three rotational nine-hole loops. Rare breed Hebridean sheep will provide sustainable grazing, reducing machinery use and enhancing biodiversity.

Area 3 – Extend: The new land will also feature a native plant nursery, a Coastal Change Learning Centre, and extensive native planting of woodlands and coastal meadows. These initiatives will significantly enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, aid carbon sequestration, and provide vital habitats.

This integrated approach aims to proactively manage coastal change, sustain Dornoch's golf tourism economy, and empower the community through education and sustainable environmental practices, fostering a more resilient future.

Planned Retreat

Planned retreat is an essential long-term strategy for protecting Dornoch from coastal erosion, offering significant advantages by strategically relocating people, infrastructure, and nature away from vulnerable areas. This approach lowers long-term risks to life and property, allows for natural coastal evolution and habitat restoration, and ultimately leads to economic savings by avoiding escalating defence costs and disaster expenses. A phased implementation, with relocations planned before the years 2100, 2250, and 2500 to areas of higher topography, will identify necessary plot movements and facilitate the decommissioning of vacated areas to provide recycled building materials for new infrastructure.

Golf Course Realignment

Golf Course Realignment

Maintaining a golf course in Dornoch is crucial for the town's economy, serving as the primary driver of global golfing tourism that supports local businesses and jobs. Beyond its economic impact, the golf club is deeply embedded in the community, functioning as a social hub, fostering local pride, and enhancing Scotland's renowned golfing heritage. Forecasted coastal erosion (indicated by the 2100 navy line) threatens the loss of 14 holes across the two courses currently occupying the coastline adjacent to Dornoch, underscoring the necessity of retaining a golf course in the area.

To ensure the continuity of this vital asset, Dornoch Golf Club has acquired land to the west of the southernmost course, offering the potential to create three distinct nine-hole loops. These loops will facilitate a unique golfing experience through a three-year rotational system, offering a different 18-hole layout each year by combining two of the three loops. This innovative approach will provide a memorable experience for returning visitors and enhance course maintenance flexibility and tee time management due to the diverse playing options available.

Extend

This nearly acquired land will not only facilitate new golf holes but also be redesigned to achieve a number of different actives. Including, a Coastal change learning centre, plant nursery and salt marsh restoration.

Plant nursery

Establishing an on-site native plant nursery in Dornoch will ensure a consistent supply of local plants with better establishment rates for ecological projects like golf course regeneration and salt-marsh restoration, yielding long-term cost savings and educational benefits. Integrating a native seed library, focused on collecting and storing seeds from indigenous plants within the region, will further support natural regeneration efforts by guaranteeing the re-establishment of genetically appropriate and resilient plant communities, directly enhancing local biodiversity and creating vital wildlife habitats.

Coastal Change Learning Centre

Establishing a coastal change learning centre in Dornoch is crucial for understanding and addressing the evolving coastline. Through engaging exhibits, the centre will explain the local impacts of coastal change, driven by global climate change and local factors. Importantly, it will empower the community and visitors with actionable steps to mitigate these changes, such as reducing their carbon footprint and supporting conservation. By focusing on Dornoch's specific context, showcasing local research, and offering educational programs, the learning centre will foster awareness, promote proactive engagement, and build a more resilient community prepared to respond to coastal challenges.

Planting

Planting a new mixed native woodland in Dornoch, incorporating Scots pine, oaks, birches, elder, and rowan with a Scotia Seeds woodland meadow mix understory, will significantly enhance biodiversity and resilience. This diverse planting creates varied habitats and food sources across different vertical layers, supporting a wider range of insects, pollinators, birds, and small mammals compared to a woodland with a bare floor. The meadow mix provides crucial nectar and pollen, improves soil health, enhances water infiltration, reduces erosion, and adds aesthetic value.

Establishing new coastal meadows in Dornoch would further boost biodiversity by providing habitat and food for salt-tolerant species, acting as vital pollinator habitats, and potentially supporting coastal protection by stabilizing dunes and reducing erosion. These meadows can also contribute to carbon sequestration, aiding in climate change mitigation.

Faced with significant coastal erosion and rising sea levels in Dornoch, this project proposes a three-pronged approach: vacating vulnerable areas for natural regeneration, implementing a planned retreat for the town, and extending the golf course with ecological enhancements like native woodlands, meadows, a plant nursery, and a learning centre. This integrated strategy aims to enhance long-term resilience, sustain the local economy driven by golf tourism, and cultivate community understanding of the changing coastline.