Developing a sustainable, ecosystem-based coastal climate change adaptation routemap for policy makers and practitioners.

Our coastline is under increasing pressure both in the UK and worldwide. These pressures are caused by human activities - as more and more of us want to live, retire and holiday by the seaside - and also by changing climate and sea-level-rise. Many coastal areas are already showing signs of the combined effects of these pressures. This was demonstrated during the intense and prolonged storms that affected large areas of England in winter 2013/14. Coastal communities experienced damage to mainline railways, destruction of seawalls, rapid cliff erosion and flooding that affected life, health, livelihoods and the economy. We urgently need to understand the risks to our coastline and determine how we can best adapt our coastline to make it safer for us to live in an increasingly stormy world. It is ever more clear that traditional approaches of defending our coastline do not always work, are expensive to maintain and often have negative ecological consequences. In many locations, we are shifting from an era of defending the coast to one where we learn to adapt to a changing coastline. A recent article in Science Magazine shows that scientists and environmental managers agree that understanding and managing how coastal communities and ecosystems will be affected by a changing climate is the third most important environmental management question we need to answer in the next decade.

In the UK, there is general agreement and growing legislative requirements for society to adapt to a changing climate, including how we manage the coast to reduce the risks of flooding and storms. For example, in England, Shoreline Management Plans have strong policy recommendations for the future management of our coastline. In many areas, it is recommended that the current policy of 'hold the line' (aka. defend the coast) is replaced with 'managed realignment' or 'roll-back' where we need to change how we manage the coast. What is currently missing is a clear scientific and policy pathway that helps coastal managers and landowners identify the best methods of designing and funding coastal adaptation options to deliver 'managed realignment' locally. This project will seek to address this gap by:

1. Reviewing, compiling and publishing best practice examples from global research about how to adapt ecosystems and communities to climate change at the coast.
2. Reviewing recent scientific research on how essential ecosystem services for society (such as clean water and reduced flood risk) can be maintained and ideally improved as we change how we manage our coastline.
3. Scientific evidence from 2 will be used as the basis for a Routemap to help coastal landowners and managers best develop practical strategies for adapting our coastline and coastal communities to a changing climate. The project will also identify the key funding mechanisms and policies that can be used to make coastal climate change adaptation projects happen in local communities. I will test the Routemap with a variety of key groups (including core partners and members of the engaged network) that will use the tool to help future-proof our coastal communities such as local councils and businesses that operate along the coast. This will make sure that we have designed a tool that meets their needs and uses local case studies from Cornwall, Suffolk and Scotland to show its capacity. I will measure how the new tool has helped change how people work and the guidance they give.
4. As the project will be linked to an internationally funded project on coastal climate change adaptation, I will draw on this expertise to inform what we do in the UK. I will also showcase the results of the UK analysis worldwide, demonstrating the UK's world leading expertise in this field.

To achieve Objectives 1-4, I involve people beyond my core project partners - who are leading UK businesses, government agencies and climate change adaptation charities (Objective 5).