About this Research Topic

Background

Coastal communities worldwide are at the forefront of impacts from rising sea levels and need to find innovative ways to adapt to these impacts. Driven by global sea-level change and local drivers, relative sea-level rise will result in greater flood risks for hundreds of millions of people globally. Sea-level rise has other, sometimes less visible, impacts. Agricultural coastal communities are dealing with salinity intrusion into coastal groundwater aquifers that can affect crops and drinking water supplies. “Sunny day” or “nuisance” flooding is predicted to increasingly impact low-lying coastal cities and communities.



At local scales, relative sea-level rise is influenced by multiple drivers, demanding multiple context-based solutions to adapt to these strategies and build resilience. Adaptation strategies typically fail when there is poor local approval or ownership, local communities are consulted poorly, and adaptation strategies fail to account for future maintenance needs. Real-world examples of unsuccessful adaptation strategies – and insights into the reasons for these failures, are invaluable tools for informing future adaptation strategies. The aim of this research topic is to bring together contributions that advance understanding of coastal climate change adaptation strategies and the local contexts that influence their design, implementation, and success or failure. We invite original research contributions including case studies and comprehensive review papers that provide novel insights into successful and unsuccessful adaptation to coastal climate change impacts under four themes:



A. How Local Priorities and Contexts Shape Adaptation and Resilience Strategies: Research is increasingly showing that adaptation strategies that do not always account for local contexts, priorities, and resources are at best unsustainable and can even aggravate damages. Studies on coastal climate change impacts tend to focus on quantifying hazards and vulnerabilities but our understanding of how local factors influence adaptation strategies, best practices, and their success remain limited.



B. Understanding Environmental, Social and Economic Trade-offs in Adaptation Strategies: The implementation of adaptation strategies invariably involves trade-offs. For example, mining offshore coral reefs to construct seawalls against flooding can result in winners (i.e. behind the seawall) and losers (i.e. reef-reliant communities) creating potential conflicts. What are the social and economic trade-offs that can emerge when coastal communities design and implement adaptation strategies and how do these trade-offs influence adaptation effectiveness and community resilience?



C. Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Ecosystem-based Adaptation is increasingly being recognized as a distinct strategy that actively includes conservation, use, and management of ecosystems within local adaptation actions. For coastal communities, these benefits could include reducing erosion, protection from storms, or even assisting community recovery after a storm. However, examples of ecosystem-based adaptation to coastal climate change impacts are limited, with limited understanding of the contexts in which they may or may not work.



D. Using Global and Regional Information to Build Local Coastal Resilience: Strategies to build local coastal resilience can benefit greatly by incorporating data and information from global and regional data and models. Novel frameworks and approaches by which large-scale data and models can be integrated into adaptation decision-making are necessary for supporting successful adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Integration also requires local understanding and appreciation of vulnerabilities, including challenges and barriers to adapting. How can climate information and impacts be better integrated with local vulnerabilities to achieve successful adaptation outcomes?

Keywords: Coastal, Adaptation, Resilience, Local, Sea-level Rise, Trade-offs

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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