Transformational adaptation on the coast: policy opportunities and barriers for local stakeholder involvement in England
Transformational adaptation on the coast: policy opportunities and barriers for local stakeholder involvement in England
Coastal communities and their environments are facing unprecedented changes, with climate change driving rising global mean sea level, exacerbating extreme sea level events, and increasing hazards. Whilst adaptations to change have been central to coastal life for millennia, climate change brings a speed and intensity of change not previously experienced. Researchers are noting that adaptations are needed that are large scale and systemic with significant changes to lives and livelihoods – Transformational Adaptations – yet there is little evidence of this in practice, and there remains an operationalisation gap between ambitions and actions. This paper uses a qualitative case study method to assess how existing policy may enable and inhibit local stakeholder involvement in transformational adaptation in English coastal flood and erosion risk management. Through twenty-one interviews with coastal management stakeholders, the capacity for local coastal management stakeholders to initiate transformational adaptation and the perceived involvement of residents are analysed. The results indicate that transformational adaptation remains a distant aspiration in the English coastal management system, with local stakeholders possessing limited capacity to initiate it. The perceived role for residents in adaptation processes is often focused on their being recipients of adaptation interventions, and there are a range of barriers to their further involvement. The paper concludes that despite the theoretical interest in transformational adaptation, there is limited evidence its implementation in English coastal flood and erosion risk management, and there are multiple priority areas for policy development to support capacity for engaged transformational adaptation practices in coastal management contexts.
Van Der Plank, Sien
de5c670f-7f26-4396-9301-a5e58dd3d77f
Van Der Plank, Sien
de5c670f-7f26-4396-9301-a5e58dd3d77f
Van Der Plank, Sien
(2024)
Transformational adaptation on the coast: policy opportunities and barriers for local stakeholder involvement in England.
Environmental Science & Policy.
(Submitted)
Abstract
Coastal communities and their environments are facing unprecedented changes, with climate change driving rising global mean sea level, exacerbating extreme sea level events, and increasing hazards. Whilst adaptations to change have been central to coastal life for millennia, climate change brings a speed and intensity of change not previously experienced. Researchers are noting that adaptations are needed that are large scale and systemic with significant changes to lives and livelihoods – Transformational Adaptations – yet there is little evidence of this in practice, and there remains an operationalisation gap between ambitions and actions. This paper uses a qualitative case study method to assess how existing policy may enable and inhibit local stakeholder involvement in transformational adaptation in English coastal flood and erosion risk management. Through twenty-one interviews with coastal management stakeholders, the capacity for local coastal management stakeholders to initiate transformational adaptation and the perceived involvement of residents are analysed. The results indicate that transformational adaptation remains a distant aspiration in the English coastal management system, with local stakeholders possessing limited capacity to initiate it. The perceived role for residents in adaptation processes is often focused on their being recipients of adaptation interventions, and there are a range of barriers to their further involvement. The paper concludes that despite the theoretical interest in transformational adaptation, there is limited evidence its implementation in English coastal flood and erosion risk management, and there are multiple priority areas for policy development to support capacity for engaged transformational adaptation practices in coastal management contexts.
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Submitted date: January 2024
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Local EPrints ID: 486197
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486197
ISSN: 1462-9011
PURE UUID: cf1a31e1-1d9d-47f9-9dc4-f0f7fa14b636
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Date deposited: 12 Jan 2024 17:43
Last modified: 20 Jan 2024 03:09
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