A brief description of Edinburgh Living Landscape (ELL) with its aspiration to make Edinburgh the best city to live in by 2050! The Shoreline is one ELL initiative which aims to consider the 27+ km of the city’s coast at a landscape scale and raise awareness of this part of the city - much of which is inaccessible and dysfunctional. The coast encompasses a whole range of contrasting land uses including honeypot recreation areas such as Cramond and Portobello, areas of multiple deprivation immediately adjacent to high levels of affluence, post-industrial derelict vacant land (DVL), recent high rise development, a number of sailing clubs, privately owned estate policies and the extensive Forth Ports docks at Leith. The Edinburgh shoreline forms part of the Forth Special Protection Area (SPA).
The Shoreline project aims to raise awareness of the city’s coast – its biodiversity and future potential in the context of intense development pressure and response to climate change through a series of interventions including temporary use of DVL, demonstrating scientific research into Greening the Grey – making coastal defences biodiverse, creative public engagement, facilitating exploration of its biodiversity and investigation through citizen science and by promoting good practice from elsewhere in the world.