Reimagining nature‐based coastal adaptation: A nested framework

Abstract

Nature‐based coastal adaptation is a subset of nature‐based solutions that has to this point focused on the materiality of managing coastal risks: what our coastal protections are made of or where we put things that are in the way of harm. In our collaborative interdisciplinary work, we have been reimagining nature‐based coastal adaptation to start with first principles: how we think about the coast and what makes a good coastal life. In a nature‐based approach our shared sense of what is good and possible, also known as the social imaginary, needs shifting before any physical material. This paper presents a new nested framework for thinking about nature‐based coastal adaptation using five words starting with R: Reimagine, Reserve, Relocate, Restore, Reinforce. We use the nature‐based adaptation option of managed dyke realignment in Bay of Fundy agricultural dykelands to illustrate the utility of the framework in practice but assert its more generic applicability.