Under the umbrella term of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) fall measures from a wide range of disciplines. With regard to coastal protection, coastal ecosystems represent possible and promising NbS to coastal threats such as storm surges or erosion. Around the globe, the looming climate change and related developments in the coastal landscapes as well as a paradigm shift in societal views shifted the focus of decision-makers and researchers onto NbS for coastal protection, driving the need for a comprehensive up-to-date review of coastal ecosystems like salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass meadows, beaches, dunes, coral, and shellfish/oyster reefs and their benefits for Water, Nature and People alike. While existing reviews of NbS have mainly focused on the idea of softer coastal protection in general and constraints regarding management and regulations, this study reviews not only the characteristics, features and needs of the coastal ecosystems under consideration but also examines the ecosystems’ potential and related processes for coastal protection, their ecological as well as their societal benefits. This review paper is based on an extensive literature review and analysis of scientific publications, books and book sections, guidelines, reports, policy recommendations and strategies. In order to create a basis for the selection of site-suitable adaptation measures for local coastal challenges and questions, this study compiles the coastal ecosystems’ key features and elaborates the provided ecosystem services for protective, ecological and societal needs. The highlighted diversity of processes within ecosystems that directly cause or support coastal protection, in combination with the multiple ecological services and societal benefits, underlines the great potential of coastal ecosystems to bridge the gap between coastal engineering and nature conservation. In combination with existing coastal protection, coastal ecosystems as NbS can serve both disciplines equally and provide an integral, sustainable element in the adaptation of coastal protection to climate change.
Uncertainties about climate change consequences, changing societal requirements and system complexity require flood protection asset managers to continuously evaluate their asset management policies and practice to manage risk and improve the resilience of their assets. However, there are many challenges in doing this, with asset operators often facing conflicting interests and major uncertainties about the future needs for asset performance. In the EU Interreg IV FAIR project, flood protection asset owners and operators, with scientific partners from the North Sea Region of Europe collaborated to develop practical guidance for adaptive asset management of flood protection infrastructure. The central component of this guidance is the FAIR framework, presented here. The framework combines insights and principles from ISO 55000 on asset management and ISO 14090 on climate adaptation with asset operator experiences to provide a practical guide for integration of asset management considerations within both strategic and operational contexts via a tactical handshake. This is a means to avoid the common lack of connection between strategic plans and operational practice. The applicability of the framework is illustrated with examples from Pilot Cases within the FAIR project, in which its value in terms of improved asset management and reduced costs has been demonstrated.
Coastal protection comprises shoreline preservation and stabilisation as well as flood protection. Besides these technical aspects, coastal protection also represents a genuine social endeavour. Within this interplay of technical and social dimensions, planning and acting for the safety of people and assets along the coastline has become increasingly difficult for the responsible authorities. Within this context, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for coastal protection offer a promising addition to and adaptation for existing protection measures such as dikes, sea walls or groynes. They bear the potential to adapt to shifting boundary conditions caused by climate change and cater the growing social call for sustainable solutions that benefit water, nature and people alike. This paper analyses, how NbS can fit into the entangled and historically grown system of coastal protection. As a paradigmatic example, the German islands of Amrum and Föhr were chosen. To contextualise the topic, a brief recap of the formation of these North Frisian Islands and their social history regarding coastal protection is given. This will be followed by a review of the relevant literature on the development of coastal protection on the two islands including its historical development. Using the theory of Social Representations (SRs), these historical insights are analytically contrasted with a synchronic snapshot gained from stakeholder interviews about the assessment of protective measures, and their anticipated future development with regard to the possible feasibility and implementation of NbS. This analysis reveals that, historically and synchronically seen, coastal protection on both islands is rather characterised by a dynamic rationale and the constant testing of and experimenting with different measures and concepts. However, well-established measures like diking or the construction of brushwood groynes for foreland creation are not being questioned while new approaches running against this rationale such as NbS are in many cases initially met with scepticism and doubt. Out of this follows that past and present dynamics in coastal protection play a vital role in planning. Hence, the implementation of NbS as signposts for the future requires an integrated and balanced interdisciplinary approach that considers the socio-technical dimensions of coastal protection for future coastal adaptation.
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