Building resilience in coastal governance: ethics and justice in responsible innovation

Coastal zones are some of the most vulnerable areas to impacts from climate change in the UK. Sea level rise, erosion, frequent storm surges and flooding already put pressure on coastal infrastructure, communities, and the natural environment. Consequently, innovative and strategic approaches to coastal management focused on adapting to the effects of climate change are urgently needed (CCC, 2018). The introduction and application of these approaches raises questions and issues for coastal managers and policy makers on the effects and impacts of innovative approaches on different temporal and spatial scales, for example:
- Which actors and communities do these innovative projects directly aim to benefit? Over which timescales? Which trade-offs are made in the choices to implement these innovative projects?
- Could some of these projects be ineffective or even harmful in the longer term?
- Are these projects able to enhance social and ecological resilience of coastal areas? If so, how and over which timescales?
Developing a stronger understanding of these complex issues requires bringing together natural science data, such as modelling of geomorphological change, to underpin understandings of social change and implications for environmental justice, which this studentship focuses on.
This project focuses on the Norfolk coast, an area particularly at risk from erosion and storm surges, and one with a long and, at times, contested history surrounding its coastal management practices (O'Riordan et al. 2014). Since the turn of the century, along this coastline, coastal management approaches have moved towards a greater acceptance of 'soft engineering approaches', which operate more in tune with natural processes occurring at specific sections of the coast. One 'soft' alternative that has been promoted to protect vulnerable coastlines and build resilience to environmental change for coastal communities is 'sandscaping' (Vikolainen et al. 2017). Sandscaping was attempted for the first time in the UK at Bacton and Walcott, on the North Norfolk coast, during the summer of 2019. This provides a unique case study to specifically explore and understand the environmental justice issues and other implications of innovative coastal management responses, in relation to adaptation, coastal management practices and decision-making.