One of the clear signals of the ongoing climate change is sea level rise (SLR). Normal oceanic tides superimposed on a rising sea level and coastal flooding will affect many coastal communities. An international colla...One of the clear signals of the ongoing climate change is sea level rise (SLR). Normal oceanic tides superimposed on a rising sea level and coastal flooding will affect many coastal communities. An international collaboration among Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States was designed to evaluate local decision making processes and to open space for local urban managers to reflect on possible actions toward adaption to sea level rise given the historical constraints imposed by administrative and institutional structures. This project focused on the processes that shape adaptation of three coastal communities in three countries. It worked jointly with these communities in defining the problem, examining risks, and understanding the benefits and obstacles that may hinder implementation of adaptation options. The framework was co-designed by an interdisciplinary team that incorporated social and natural scientists from the three countries, including local government officials. The study addressed 1) evaluation of adaptive capacity through participant surveys and 2) physical and cost impact simulations using geospatial models of the built infrastructure and implementation of adaptation options under different hazard scenarios, including 50 and 100-year sea level rise projections and severe storms. Based on the surveys’ results, there is a clear sense of the awareness of each community of the risk of floods due to intense storms, and of the usefulness of engaging early in a process that promotes the understanding of risks, impacts, and costs. A majority of workshop participants prioritized pursuing physical and green infrastructure actions now or within coming years or decades. A positive common aspect of the three sites was the commitment shown by the stakeholders in taking part in the process and evaluating which adaptation measures could be more effective in their cities. While in the US and UK structural solutions and voluntary buyouts were prioritized for the future, Brazil prioritized structural solutions and ecosystems restoration and not voluntary buyouts. All of these are choices to increase resiliency against sea level rise that have a high benefit-cost ratio. The Adaptive Capacity Index (ACI) results illustrate barriers to adaptation action, including technical, economic and political issues that reveal inequalities in adaptive capacity among case studies.展开更多
The coast is home to unique ecosystems,where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial,aquatic,atmospheric,and human landscapes.However,there are considerable knowledge and data ga...The coast is home to unique ecosystems,where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial,aquatic,atmospheric,and human landscapes.However,there are considerable knowledge and data gaps in achieving effective and future change-proof sustainable management of coastal zones around the world due to both technical and social barriers,as well as governance challenges.Currently,the role of Earth observation(EO)in addressing many of the recognised information gaps is small and under-utilised.While EO can provide much of the spatiotemporal information required for historical analysis and current status mapping,and offers the advantage of global coverage;its uptake can be limited by technical and methodological challenges associated mostly with lack of capacity and infrastructure,product accuracy and accessibility,costs,and institutional acceptance.While new initiatives and recent technological progress in the EO and information technology arena aim to tackle some of these issues so that EO products can be more easily used by non-EO experts,uptake is still limited.This paper discusses how EO can potentially inform transformative practices of planning in the coastal water zone,by using examples to demonstrate the EO potential in providing information relevant to decisionmaking framed by international agreements,such as the United Nations Agenda 2030,the Convention on Biological Diversity,and the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction.By presenting evidence for how EO can contribute to innovative opportunities and data synergies at scale,the paper discusses opportunities and challenges for a more solution-led approach to sustainable coastal management.展开更多
In recent decades,international assessments of the ocean have evolved from specialized,technical evaluations of the state of the marine environment to more integrated and thematically extensive science-policy platform...In recent decades,international assessments of the ocean have evolved from specialized,technical evaluations of the state of the marine environment to more integrated and thematically extensive science-policy platforms.As assessment programmes such as the UN Regular Process blossom on the global stage and subsume responsibility for tracking progress on sustainable development,there is a need to consider how their processes wield influence and effectively translate knowledge into action.In the present paper,we undertake a comprehensive review of the literature on global environmental assessments(GEAs)and extract key principles that can be applied to global assessments of the marine environment.We were particularly inspired to identify how social processes could be arranged to best distill,communicate,and produce actionable knowledge.While we look to the advice of experts in the literature,we highlight specific examples from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC),Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services(IPBES),and the Global Environment Outlook(GEO).From this review,knowledge coproduction,multilevel collaboration,and futures thinking emerged as the dominant principles of influential and action-oriented assessments.We conclude the paper by contextualizing how these principles may be operationalized for Global Marine Assessments in the future.展开更多
文摘One of the clear signals of the ongoing climate change is sea level rise (SLR). Normal oceanic tides superimposed on a rising sea level and coastal flooding will affect many coastal communities. An international collaboration among Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States was designed to evaluate local decision making processes and to open space for local urban managers to reflect on possible actions toward adaption to sea level rise given the historical constraints imposed by administrative and institutional structures. This project focused on the processes that shape adaptation of three coastal communities in three countries. It worked jointly with these communities in defining the problem, examining risks, and understanding the benefits and obstacles that may hinder implementation of adaptation options. The framework was co-designed by an interdisciplinary team that incorporated social and natural scientists from the three countries, including local government officials. The study addressed 1) evaluation of adaptive capacity through participant surveys and 2) physical and cost impact simulations using geospatial models of the built infrastructure and implementation of adaptation options under different hazard scenarios, including 50 and 100-year sea level rise projections and severe storms. Based on the surveys’ results, there is a clear sense of the awareness of each community of the risk of floods due to intense storms, and of the usefulness of engaging early in a process that promotes the understanding of risks, impacts, and costs. A majority of workshop participants prioritized pursuing physical and green infrastructure actions now or within coming years or decades. A positive common aspect of the three sites was the commitment shown by the stakeholders in taking part in the process and evaluating which adaptation measures could be more effective in their cities. While in the US and UK structural solutions and voluntary buyouts were prioritized for the future, Brazil prioritized structural solutions and ecosystems restoration and not voluntary buyouts. All of these are choices to increase resiliency against sea level rise that have a high benefit-cost ratio. The Adaptive Capacity Index (ACI) results illustrate barriers to adaptation action, including technical, economic and political issues that reveal inequalities in adaptive capacity among case studies.
基金supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.687289(Co-ReSyF project)the United Kingdom’s Natural Environment Research Council(NERC)under Grant NE/E009328(GloboLakes project)the Future Earth Coasts project.
文摘The coast is home to unique ecosystems,where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial,aquatic,atmospheric,and human landscapes.However,there are considerable knowledge and data gaps in achieving effective and future change-proof sustainable management of coastal zones around the world due to both technical and social barriers,as well as governance challenges.Currently,the role of Earth observation(EO)in addressing many of the recognised information gaps is small and under-utilised.While EO can provide much of the spatiotemporal information required for historical analysis and current status mapping,and offers the advantage of global coverage;its uptake can be limited by technical and methodological challenges associated mostly with lack of capacity and infrastructure,product accuracy and accessibility,costs,and institutional acceptance.While new initiatives and recent technological progress in the EO and information technology arena aim to tackle some of these issues so that EO products can be more easily used by non-EO experts,uptake is still limited.This paper discusses how EO can potentially inform transformative practices of planning in the coastal water zone,by using examples to demonstrate the EO potential in providing information relevant to decisionmaking framed by international agreements,such as the United Nations Agenda 2030,the Convention on Biological Diversity,and the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction.By presenting evidence for how EO can contribute to innovative opportunities and data synergies at scale,the paper discusses opportunities and challenges for a more solution-led approach to sustainable coastal management.
文摘In recent decades,international assessments of the ocean have evolved from specialized,technical evaluations of the state of the marine environment to more integrated and thematically extensive science-policy platforms.As assessment programmes such as the UN Regular Process blossom on the global stage and subsume responsibility for tracking progress on sustainable development,there is a need to consider how their processes wield influence and effectively translate knowledge into action.In the present paper,we undertake a comprehensive review of the literature on global environmental assessments(GEAs)and extract key principles that can be applied to global assessments of the marine environment.We were particularly inspired to identify how social processes could be arranged to best distill,communicate,and produce actionable knowledge.While we look to the advice of experts in the literature,we highlight specific examples from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC),Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services(IPBES),and the Global Environment Outlook(GEO).From this review,knowledge coproduction,multilevel collaboration,and futures thinking emerged as the dominant principles of influential and action-oriented assessments.We conclude the paper by contextualizing how these principles may be operationalized for Global Marine Assessments in the future.
