Task description
Shoreline management planning for the future depends not only on a sound understanding of the science of climate change and its impacts on coastal systems, but also on the communication of the science to stakeholders and effective governance. The importance of governance lies in the fact that the delivery of adaptive responses through shoreline management planning depends on governance mechanisms. Governance thus plays a critical role in determining adaptive capacity, together with the distribution within society of the costs and benefits from adaptation.
The aim of this task is to explore how best to deliver sustainable natural and social capital in the coastal zone in the face of climate change, by analysing methods of stakeholder dialogue and the consequences of governance structures for the delivery of a sustainable coastline.
A key element of the task is to understand governance structures and decision making processes for the coastal zone. This will be carried out by carrying out interviews with key stakeholders in order to define the rules that impact on decision making within the coastal zone. These are critical inputs for the Agent Based Modelling (see Task 5.1) that allows the coupling of environmental models to the social systems that are embedded within them. The aim is to model the roles of social interaction and adaptive human decision making in coastal zone management, linking the social and environmental systems in a single modelling framework. This will allow the adaptive consequences of changing environments and environmental management policies to be explored.
A second key element will be to explore the most effective methods to promote communication of the science in this programme with key stakeholders together with stakeholder participation in coastal governance. This will build on our work in Phase 1 where we explored participatory methods and the use of virtual reality methods to communicate the outcomes of the science and the choices that can be made. As part of this task, we intend to explore how uncertainties over future coastal evolution together with management choices can be more effectively communicated, especially through visualisations. We also intend to investigate, using a range of participatory techniques, how local communities and businesses are responding to the evolving policy regime that is impacting on coastal zone management and the most effective methods to promote sustainability and stakeholder participation in coastal governance.
People and task details
Principal Investigator:
Professor Andrew Watkinson, University of East Anglia
Lead researchers:
Professor Robert Nicholls, University of Southampton
Professor Tim O’Riordan, University of East Anglia
Other researchers involved:
Dr Simon Jude, University of East Anglia
Dr Jessica Milligan, University of East Anglia
Dr Sophie Nicholson-Cole, University of East Anglia
Dr Julie Richards, University of Southampton
Professor Mark Rounsevell, UCL, Belgium
Task duration:
1 April 2006 to 31 March 2009
Stakeholders:
Key stakeholders for this task are the Environment Agency, North Norfolk District Council, Natural England and Defra together with local community groups
Planned outputs and communication:
The key deliverable from this task will be the rule base for the Agent Based Modelling that will allow the linkage of the environmental change model with the social system in a quantitative framework for the coastal simulator.
Outputs from the studies on communication and participatory methods will be communicated to stakeholder groups, including the Environment Agency, Defra, Natural England, local Councils and community groups. This will be by both workshops and written reports. Practical guidance for shoreline management for climate change and sea-level rise will be developed.
Papers are planned on governance structures and the rule bases for agent based modelling, visualisation techniques in participatory coastal management and participatory methodologies.
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