43 Adaptive Management Solutions to Building Coastal Community Resilience

Transformative adaptation

Addressing the root causes of vulnerability in the long term by fundamentally changing the structures and functions of ecological or social systems, as well as their feedbacks, to move away from unsustainable trajectories (Fedele et al. 2019; Feola, 2015).

This transformative adaption text is from “Limited use of transformative adaptation in response to social-ecological shifts driven by climate change” © 2020 by Giacomo Fedele, Camila I. Donatti, Celia A. Harvey, Lee Hannah and David G. Hole is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Coastal modelling, monitoring and early warning systems

Monitoring over long-time scales to produce more accurate modelling of sea-level rise and other climate impacts.

Developing and implementing advanced early warning systems can help communities prepare for and respond to coastal hazards, including storm surges and flooding.

Integrated Ecosystem-based Coastal Management

Implement comprehensive coastal management plans that consider the needs of both communities and ecosystems. These plans should balance economic development with environmental protection.

Nature-based barriers

Constructing natural barriers such as dunes, mangroves, and coral reefs can help absorb wave energy and reduce erosion. These ecosystems act as buffers against storm surges and protect coastlines.

Armouring or hardening shorelines

Anthropogenic, engineered structures like seawalls, levees, and flood barriers can provide protection against rising sea levels and storm surges.

Elevate and Retrofit Infrastructure

Elevating buildings and critical infrastructure like power plants, roads, and wastewater treatment facilities can reduce their vulnerability to sea level rise and storm surges. Retrofitting existing infrastructure to withstand flooding and coastal erosion is also crucial.

Managed Retreat

In areas that are extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and repeated flooding, it may be necessary to plan for managed retreat. This involves moving communities and infrastructure away from the coastline to safer areas.

There are three retreat approaches: all-at-once, threshold-based, and reactive (Figure 1). All-at-once retreat is the managed, planned, and proactive removal and potentially relocation of communities, buildings, and infrastructure inland. In this approach, all considered properties are acquired and retreated simultaneously and as soon as possible. Threshold-based retreat postpones managed retreat until a predetermined trigger is reached. Here, we base our threshold on a local ordinance, such that the threshold distance is six meters away from the coastal erosion line and we assume dwellings must retreat once the distance to the erosion line is less than the threshold. Threshold-based retreat is triggered on a parcel-by-parcel basis. Both all-at-once and threshold-based retreat enable mitigation of public safety and environmental damage risks. A reactive approach would generally be considered an “unmanaged” approach to retreat; however, there could still be shared intention between government and landowners in this approach, as well as means to lessening public risk. Reactive retreat occurs after major damage or a disaster event, where the only remaining option is evacuation. In this retreat approach, high levels of public safety and environmental damage risks, for example through the introduction of asbestos and lead into the nearshore environment, are potentially incurred. We use the projected erosion line to determine when major damage, such as a dwelling falling onto the beach area, may occur.

Managed retreat led by local governments is only likely to be successful if existing, strong coastal policy and protection laws are in place to address SLR and enable retreat, as has been seen in New Zealand, Alaska, and California (Murphy 2017; Bronen & Chapin, 2013; Lester et al., 2022). Managed retreat has the potential to transform norms surrounding climate change adaptation by prioritising justice issues and considering climate risks rather than just facilitating the movement of people away from hazards, as the burden of adaptation should be equitably distributed (Lawrence et al. 2020; Siders et al. 2021; Tubridy et al. 2021).

This text and image (in the managed retreat section) is from “Managing retreat for sandy beach areas under sea level rise” by Renee O. Setter, Rachael X. Han, Kammie-Dominique Tavares, Conrad Newfield, Alice Terry, Isabella M. Roberson, Nori Tarui & Makena Coffman and published via Scientific Reports, is licensed under CC BY 4.0, except for the introductory paragraph and minor edits to the text and bolding for emphasis, which has been added by Trish Corbett.

Community Engagement and Education

Building community awareness and resilience is essential. Public education and community engagement programs can help residents understand the risks associated with sea level rise and take proactive measures.

Collaborative, inclusive management

Incorporating all stakeholders including industry, government, local communities and indigenous communities.