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Shifting perspectives on coastal impacts and adaptation

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 752–755 (2014)Cite this article

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports reflect evolving attitudes in adapting to sea-level rise by taking a systems approach and recognizing that multiple responses exist to achieve a less hazardous coast.

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Figure 1: A systems approach to long-term strategic adaptation policies and planning (adapted from Fig. 6.1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Fourth Assessment Report6).
Figure 2: Evolution of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) coastal chapter from the First to Fifth Assessment Reports (1990–2014) and its methodological approaches1,3,4,5,6.

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Acknowledgements

The authors developed this contribution at a workshop funded by the Worldwide Universities Network hosted by the University of Southampton, UK, with subsequent writing funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme's collaborative project RISES-AM-(contract FP7-ENV-2013-two-stage-603396).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, University Road, Highfield, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK

    Sally Brown, Robert J. Nicholls, Susan Hanson, Attila N. Lázár, Kenneth Pye & Barend van Maanen

  2. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Southampton, University Road, Highfield, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK

    Sally Brown, Robert J. Nicholls, Susan Hanson, Ivan D. Haigh, Attila N. Lázár & Emma L. Tompkins

  3. Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Geoff Brundrit

  4. Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, University Road, Highfield, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK

    John A. Dearing & Emma L. Tompkins

  5. School of Environment, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    Mark E. Dickson

  6. Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK

    Shari L. Gallop, Ivan D. Haigh & Kenneth Pye

  7. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Coast and Island Development, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Shu Gao

  8. Adaptation and Social Learning, Global Climate Forum e.V., Neue Promenade 6, Berlin, 10178, Germany

    Jochen Hinkel

  9. Laboratori d'Enginyeria Marítima, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, c/Jordi Girona 1-3, Campus Nord ed D1, Barcelona, 08034, Spain

    José A. Jiménez & Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla

  10. Stockholm Environment Institute, Box 24218, Linnégatan 87D, Stockholm, 104 51, Sweden

    Richard J. T. Klein

  11. Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Norrköping, 601 74, Sweden

    Richard J. T. Klein

  12. Geo Risks Research, Munich Reinsurance Company, Koeniginstrasse 107, Munich, 80791, Germany

    Wolfgang Kron

  13. Ocean Engineering Department — COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68508, Rio de Janeiro, 21949-900, Brazil

    Claudio Freitas Neves

  14. Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMA), University of Algarve, Gambelas Campus, Faro, 8005-139, Portugal

    Alice Newton

  15. Department of Environmental Impacts and Economics (IMPEC), Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Box 100, Kjeller, 2027, Norway

    Alice Newton

  16. NILU-IMPEC, Box 100, Kjeller, 2027, Norway

    Alice Newton

  17. School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering and University of Western Australia Oceans Institute, Mailstop MO15, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Western Australia, Australia

    Charitha Pattiaratachi

  18. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

    Andres Payo

  19. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS1 5JU, UK

    Mark Siddall

  20. Ministry of Environment and Energy, Green Building, Handhuvaree Hingun, Maafannu, 20392, Malé, Republic of Maldives

    Ali Shareef

  21. Coastal Risks and Sea-Level Rise Research Group, Future Ocean Excellence Cluster, Institute of Geography, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 14, Kiel, 24098, Germany

    Athanasios T. Vafeidis

  22. Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, The Netherlands

    Philip J. Ward

  23. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 2522, New South Wales, Australia

    Colin D. Woodroffe

Authors
  1. Sally Brown
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  2. Robert J. Nicholls
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  3. Susan Hanson
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  15. Claudio Freitas Neves
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  16. Alice Newton
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  17. Charitha Pattiaratachi
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  18. Andres Payo
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  19. Kenneth Pye
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  20. Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla
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  21. Mark Siddall
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  22. Ali Shareef
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  23. Emma L. Tompkins
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  24. Athanasios T. Vafeidis
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  25. Barend van Maanen
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  26. Philip J. Ward
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  27. Colin D. Woodroffe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sally Brown.

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Brown, S., Nicholls, R., Hanson, S. et al. Shifting perspectives on coastal impacts and adaptation. Nature Clim Change 4, 752–755 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2344

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