Speaker
Description
Coastlines and estuarine river edges are changing. With sea levels rising, and continued coastal protection increasingly being financially and practically unviable, increased thought is being given to managing a retreat from vulnerable areas along urban river edges and coasts and learning to live with water. Flooding, however, isn't just about waters rising. National and international laws, policies, economic frameworks and social processes produce and sustain unjust impacts from natural processes. Through decoupling the risk factors of hazard, exposure and vulnerability and applying a spatial justice methodological framework to coastal adaptation, the ethical, socio-economic and environmental challenges working with adapting to a changing climate can be better understood.
Working in the United Kingdom context this research seeks to understand how national, regional and local legal and planning governance, funding and land ownership frameworks enable or limit adaptation planning. Increasing this understanding allows for the implementation of adaptation pathways to be understood in their wider socio-spatial context. The planning and legal systems that apply to local and regional spatial decisions are often the locus for concept conflicts between present and future land uses. As the need to implement climate adaptation 'on the ground' increasing in urgency, understanding how this agenda can be supported by current legal, land ownership and planning policy frameworks is crucial for enabling resilient places for future generations.
This talk asks the question "why is climate adaptation so difficult to implement?". It works towards an answer by exploring the legal and policy frameworks, along with land ownership regimes, into which 'adaptation thinking' is being applied. With a focus on coastal adaptation, the challenges faced in contending with an increasingly (anthropogenically) hostile climate are grounded in legal theory, planning law, land ownership and overarching governance frameworks. The spatial justice lens is useful here in that it allows us to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges of implementing adaptation pathways.
This analysis of multi-level governance, across law, policy and land ownership, allows us to explore where adaptation has the power to enact change within current land management and planning frameworks. At which level of governance does adaptation need to be championed in order for implementation to occur? Where are the windows of opportunity, and where are the barriers for successful, inter-generationally just outcomes?
| Keywords | Multi-level governance; planning law; spatial justice; land ownership; climate adaptation |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
