Thesis Title: A line in the sand: Towards a new framework for sustainable coastal communities
Abstract: The UK’s shorelines face major environmental and socioeconomic risks due to climate change. Climate change will lead to rising sea levels and changing storm patterns, increasing coastal flooding and accelerating coastal erosion (CCC, 2021). There is a growing policy gap between accelerating risks and slow adaptation action. Current government policies and actions are not adequate to manage these rapidly increasing risks, resulting in a significant adaptation gap. This is due to uncertainties on when and where the greatest impacts will occur, a complex patchwork of legislation, a limited budget, and implementation difficulties. My research will aim to review and synthesise previous coastal risk assessments, policy approaches, and cost-benefit analyses. From this, a range of viable coastal development options will be derived and tested with impacted communities and policy experts. Finally, an innovative approach to coastal adaptation decision-making will be applied and improved to include social acceptability in addition to environmental and economic data.
First Supervisor: Andrew Russell
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