About this Research Topic
The topic of managed retreat (MR) has received increasing policy attention as a series of billion dollar plus flood disasters, often associated with super-charged cyclones, have ravaged coastal communities around the world. While MR has traditionally focused on flood events, the tools and approaches have also been applied to other climate-related issues, including wildfires, extreme heat, and persistent drought that affect habitability. Managed retreat, and analogous terms such as strategic realignment, refer to a range of policy options including buyouts, building restrictions, tax incentives, increased insurance rates, and planned relocation that incentivize movements out of high risk locations. The study of managed retreat has also included programs that would potentially enable communities to stay in place through adaptation efforts like coastal fortifications, raised or floating housing, and building with nature. However MR is construed, it raises a range of equity concerns - e.g., in the allocation of MR-related resources, climate gentrification, and the potential for stranded assets among low income communities.
The goal of this Research Topic (RT) is to provide compilation of contemporary research, grounded in field experience or showcasing innovative approaches, that can advance our understanding of how managed retreat (MR) can be successfully implemented, or that underscore the complexity of local implementation, and how existing policy and vested interests can inhibit MR, potentially putting more people at risk. Equity issues are often revealed in how MR is implemented, and all authors are encouraged to address equity as a cross-cutting theme. How might the dynamics of real estate valuation and risk impact social vulnerability in capitalist economies?
The editors are also interested in understanding how the concept of managed retreat (MR) is interpreted in developing country contexts. How is the notion of "retreat" understood and defined in heterogeneous contexts? Who does the articulating and funding of managed retreat? Are climate adaptation projects through out-migration substantively different from other forms of government-organized relocation in response to perceived or real hazards, which have often proven disempowering for many communities? And what role do contested notions of state legitimacy play in the process of managing retreat and creating new livelihood strategies for climate vulnerable populations?
We welcome papers addressing any of the following topic areas, as well as others that we may not have thought of:
- Built environment (design and architecture; land use planning; infrastructure; urban planning, building codes)
- Buyouts and property acquisition
- Climate and social science for managed retreat (vulnerability; risk; opportunity)
- Communication strategies (storytelling; teaching about managed retreat; arts)
- Community resilience (community organizing; vulnerable populations; social psychology; mental health; crowding out; residents’ perspectives)
- Ecosystem conservation and migration
- Environmental justice and equity
- Finance and economics (market signals; real estate; insurance; capital markets)
- Governance, policy and planning (decision-making; international frameworks; federal management; state programs; local planning; multi-level policy coordination)
- Habitability (defining habitability; degrees of habitability; habitability for what and for whom?)
- Infrastructure Interdependencies and cascading impacts
- Legal issues and tools (property rights; zoning & land use; immigration)
- Migration as adaptation/maladaptation (assisted relocation; voluntary movement)
- Receiving areas (growth management and sustainable regional development)
- Sending areas (impacts on those left behind, involuntary immobility / trapped populations)
- Migrants and displaced persons (costs and benefits)
- Non-coastal changes in habitability and mobility (flood and riverine areas; drought and dryland expansion; temperature extremes; wildfire in the urban-wildland interface)
- Private sector perspectives (economic development strategies; corporate relocations; labor market dynamics)
- Receiving community considerations
The goal of this Research Topic (RT) is to provide compilation of contemporary research, grounded in field experience or showcasing innovative approaches, that can advance our understanding of how managed retreat (MR) can be successfully implemented, or that underscore the complexity of local implementation, and how existing policy and vested interests can inhibit MR, potentially putting more people at risk. Equity issues are often revealed in how MR is implemented, and all authors are encouraged to address equity as a cross-cutting theme. How might the dynamics of real estate valuation and risk impact social vulnerability in capitalist economies?
The editors are also interested in understanding how the concept of managed retreat (MR) is interpreted in developing country contexts. How is the notion of "retreat" understood and defined in heterogeneous contexts? Who does the articulating and funding of managed retreat? Are climate adaptation projects through out-migration substantively different from other forms of government-organized relocation in response to perceived or real hazards, which have often proven disempowering for many communities? And what role do contested notions of state legitimacy play in the process of managing retreat and creating new livelihood strategies for climate vulnerable populations?
We welcome papers addressing any of the following topic areas, as well as others that we may not have thought of:
- Built environment (design and architecture; land use planning; infrastructure; urban planning, building codes)
- Buyouts and property acquisition
- Climate and social science for managed retreat (vulnerability; risk; opportunity)
- Communication strategies (storytelling; teaching about managed retreat; arts)
- Community resilience (community organizing; vulnerable populations; social psychology; mental health; crowding out; residents’ perspectives)
- Ecosystem conservation and migration
- Environmental justice and equity
- Finance and economics (market signals; real estate; insurance; capital markets)
- Governance, policy and planning (decision-making; international frameworks; federal management; state programs; local planning; multi-level policy coordination)
- Habitability (defining habitability; degrees of habitability; habitability for what and for whom?)
- Infrastructure Interdependencies and cascading impacts
- Legal issues and tools (property rights; zoning & land use; immigration)
- Migration as adaptation/maladaptation (assisted relocation; voluntary movement)
- Receiving areas (growth management and sustainable regional development)
- Sending areas (impacts on those left behind, involuntary immobility / trapped populations)
- Migrants and displaced persons (costs and benefits)
- Non-coastal changes in habitability and mobility (flood and riverine areas; drought and dryland expansion; temperature extremes; wildfire in the urban-wildland interface)
- Private sector perspectives (economic development strategies; corporate relocations; labor market dynamics)
- Receiving community considerations
Keywords: managed retreat strategic realignment planned relocation resettlement buyouts sea level rise fire risk flood risk natural hazards habitability
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.
