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Sea level rise and the increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as storms and related storm surges, driven by climatic change, will increase such risks to coastal populations (IPCC, 2022). In the UK alone 82,000 properties are at risk of loss by the end of the century, with 2,200 of those by 2040 according to the UK’s latest climate change risk assessment. There are high financial costs of managing and slowing the rate of coastal erosion, meaning that in many locations (including in the UK) there are significant uncertainties about where current coastal management policies of protecting coastal areas will be fulfilled (Sayers et al., 2022). This means that this paper sets out to explore issues which are likely to become more common in many nations.
This paper focuses on the experiences of households affected by coastal erosion, and how the institutional frameworks regarding the management of coastal erosion affect residential decision-making, a topic which to date has received limited attention. It explores residential decision-making when a decision is made to not defend a coastline against erosion. It does so by presenting the findings of a series of interviews with residents on the Holderness coast in the UK, the fastest eroding coastline in Europe.
Its key scientific contribution is in providing an understanding of the experience and impacts of coastal erosion upon communities and how this affects risk perceptions and residential mobility decision-making. The research seeks to understand how individuals interpret, perceive and weigh up the benefits and risks from moves into, and out of properties at risk of erosion (Raaijmakers et al., 2008).
The positive experiences of living in a rural, coastal location are explored in the paper. This contrasted with the negative experiences of erosion, and the associated feelings of unfairness, physical decline and related loss of amenity and perceived abandonment by local government. This, in addition to the significant reduction in financial value of property influenced the balance between benefit and risk resulting from a residential move into or out of the study area. For some, the benefit of a discounted home served to encourage a move into the area, despite the presence of risk. For others, the range of benefits associated with living in the study area meant they were unwilling to move away, despite the risk.
Residential moves into the study area may seem irrational. An important contribution of this paper is to illustrate that they are the result of the balancing of intuitive judgments of risk and benefits in the residential decision-making process. An inward move represented an example of residential decision-making where the tangible benefit of a house at a heavily discounted price, along with a series of other less tangible benefits (e.g. place attachment and amenity benefits of living in such locations) outweighed the perceived risk. The balance between risk and benefit did not explain the situation completely. In some cases, the low value of homes meant some household’s financial resources could not support a move away from risk. This underlined how the absence of compensation for the effects of erosion means the impacts of erosion fall disproportionately on lower-income households.
The paper goes on to consider the policy and practice implications, exploring the fairness of compensation regimes, and understanding how changes in governance frameworks for managing coastal change at the coast can be fairly and smoothly implemented. By doing so, the paper draws connections between climate adaptation, coastal management, public perceptions, and residential decision-making.
References
IPCC. 2022. Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Accessed November 8, 2023. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/
Raaijmakers, R., J. Krywkow, and A. van der Veen. 2008. "Flood risk perceptions and spatial multi-criteria analysis: an exploratory research for hazard mitigation." Natural Hazards 46: 307-322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-007-9189-z
Sayers, P., C. Moss, S. Carr, and A. Payo. 2022. "Responding to climate change around England's coast-The scale of the transformational challenge." Ocean & Coastal Management 225: 106187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106187
| Keywords | Coastal Erosion; Climate Change; Climate Adaptation; Risk Perceptions; Coastal Management. |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
