Thresholds and contingencies: a design process for regional coastal resilience

In Sustainable Coastal Design and Planning (Routledge, City: 2019). Edited by Elizabeth Mossop.

https://www.routledge.com/Sustainable-Coastal-Design-and-Planning/Mossop/p/book/9780367570750

Cities, with their high population densities and capital investment, are deemed most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and hence this is where most research and money is invested.

However, the impacts of climate change in underfunded coastal regions are likely to be no less significant. From a resilience perspective, these regions provide a back-up service to the cities.

For coastal farms to remain viable, access to land is critical, but inundation from flooding and sea level rise is likely to effectively diminish arable land in low lying areas by up to 50% in some cases.

This chapter addresses a way of thinking about adaptation to climate change in regional coastal areas that relies not on financial incentives and government policy, but rather on a community-based approach.