Climate Change Adaptation Options for Coastal Communities and Local Governments

Abstract

Extreme weather events and failure to adapt to the likely impacts of climate change are two of the most significant threats to humanity. Therefore, many local communities are preparing adaptation plans. Even so, much of what was done has not been published in the peer-reviewed literature. This means that consideration of adaptation options for local communities is limited. With the objective of assisting in the development of adaptation plans, we present 80 adaptation options suitable for coastal communities that can be applied by local governments. They are a catena of options from defend to co-exist and finally, retreat that progresses as impacts become less manageable. Options are organized according to their capacity to protect local properties and infrastructure, natural systems, food production, availability of fresh and drinking water and well-being of the local population, as these are likely to be affected by climate change. To respond to multiple threats, ‘soft’ options, such as awareness raising, planning, political articulation and financial incentives, insurance and professional skills enhancement, can be encouraged immediately at relatively low cost and are reversible. For specific threats, options emphasize change in management practices as pre-emptive measures. Key audiences for this work are communities and local governments starting to consider priority actions to respond to climate change impacts.

Ranking Climate Change Adaptation Options

“…Its coastline extends for about 50km. It covers an area of 1,633km 2 and in 2016 had a population of about 250,000 people [12]. According to [13], by 2100, climate change is likely to affect the Sunshine Coast region in the following ways:…”

“…In this context, many local communities are starting to prepare their adaptation plans. To help on this, [2] published a compilation of 80 adaptation options that are suitable to be implemented by local councils, residents and industries. They have not discussed, however, how to prioritize between so many options.…”

“…[4]'s method, while much simpler than the approach developed by [3], encompasses very large tables, which can be difficult to understand. Just to illustrate, if [4]'s approach were to be used considering the 80 options described by [2], it would have 81 lines (titles plus 80 options), 7 columns and 567 nodes. Hence, if presented to the local community, it was likely to create more confusion than understanding.…”

Disconnect within Agriculture and Ecosystem Climate Effects, Adaptations and Policy

“…Sinay and Carter (2020) reviewed papers that focused on climate effects on coastal communities [37]. They discussed climate change as a cause of increased occurrences of flooding and fire along with the impacts to coastlines and beaches, inland areas, infrastructure, housing, natural systems, food production, fresh and drinking water availability, and community welfare.…”

“…However, few papers in this collection suggested specific AE adaptation strategies. Only Sinay and Carter exclusively focused on identifying and synthesizing the best practices in adaptation strategies [37]. Other papers were able to make adaptation suggestions specific to the system such as Scholes argument for the adoption of sustainable land use [39] or Ding and McCarl's suggested changes to current water use [42].…”