Residents in up to 2,000 properties along the Humber estuary could be left to defend their own homes against rising sea levels, a report has warned.
The Environment Agency has admitted some areas will not be protected as it develops a strategy to manage flooding over the next century.
The report includes a planned £320m investment, but says there may not be enough money to maintain some defences.
"There will be losers as well as winners," the report states.
Last summer Hull and many communities along the estuary were badly hit by flooding after torrential rain.
Agency officials have been working on the basis sea levels will rise by up to 0.3m in the next 50 years and up to a metre over the next century.
Phillip Winn, the Environment Agency's manager for the Humber estuary project, said there were "some difficult decisions to make".
"The national flood defence budget is limited so we can only maintain or improve defences where there is a good business case for doing so"
The agency can only raise flood defences to maintain existing walls where there is a "real justification for doing so", he explained.
Areas where defences are unlikely to be improved, after 10 years, include Kilnsea, Sunk Island, Paull, Hessle and North Ferriby as well as the south bank areas of Alkborough and Goxhill.
The report states: "The national flood defence budget is limited, so we can only maintain or improve defences where there is a good business case for doing so.
"The defences we can't improve will deteriorate and in due course fail, unless others are willing to take on the responsibility of managing them.
"Property owners will get no compensation in these circumstances but we will advise them about what they can do to minimise the impact."
Mr Winn said the agency hoped "to build secondary lines of defence" in those areas.
The report states that defences at Goole will be improved along with Brough and Swinefleet.
The agency said it would not improve defences protecting the lakes at Welton Water but would construct new defences to protect Brough and the BAE factory.
Hull's tidal flood defences will also be improved.
Five-year review
On the south bank from Whitton to Halton Marshes, the agency said important road and rail networks must be protected so defences would be improved.
Most of the defences between the Humber Bridge and Barton Cliff are unlikely to need major repairs for 20 to 40 years.
From North Killingholme to Grimsby, the defences will be improved as necessary to protect large numbers of people, businesses and important industries.
And from Cleethorpes to Saltfleet the agency said government funding should be available when the defences need repairing, but the position will be reviewed over the next five years.
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