Lecture 14: Coastal protection and future adaptation strategies

Question 1

Name the four adaptation strategies.

Answer 1

Protect open
protect closed
Advance
Accommodate

Question 2

Explain the key principles of the ‘protect open’ scenario.

Answer 2

Hard and soft measures: traditional flood defenses
o keep the sea open
o open connection with the sea
o Dams
o Soft and naturebased solutions
o Higher dikes and flood defences
o Enough space for super dikes? Public resistance? Catastrophic damage if something goes wrong?

Question 3

Explain the key principles of the ‘protect closed’ scenario.

Answer 3

o Comparable with protect open
o Dutch coast through flooding and erosion with barriers and storm surge barriers
o Large pumping stations  how to construct super pumping stations and water retention areas
o Handles More sea level rise than protect open.

Question 4

Key characteristics of the ‘Advance’ strategy

Answer 4

o Water border in front of the present coastline
 Dikes and stuff
 Also airports and urbanization there
o Closed strategy
o Innovative land reclamation: Singapore and Dubai palms (inspired by Dutch Flevo concept)
o Availability of sand is a thing
o Sea level could rise faster than what is available with this

Question 5

Key characteristics of the ‘Accommodate’ strategy

Answer 5

o Water and soil as key principles
o Creating water and salt tolerlant land use areas
o Raising land elevation / terps
o Much more space for the rivers

Question 6

Which types of management responses to coastal risk and sea level rise does the IPCC distinguish, and how have these been translated to the Dutch situation?

Answer 6

THe IPCC distinguishes ‘no response, advance, protection, retreat, accommodation and ecosystem-based adaptation’. This is translated into the dutch strategies as well. The dutch strategies include:
* advance,
* protection,
* accommodation/ecosystembased adaptation

Question 7

What are differences between the IPCC strategies and the Dutch adaptation strategies?

Answer 7

A difference is the ecosystem-based adaptation in IPCC, this is integrated in one of the Dutch strategies but is not as explicit.

Also the strategy ‘no response’ is not an option in the Dutch adaptation strategies, as it is with IPCC.

Also ‘Retreating’ is not one of the key points in the Dutch strategies as it is with IPCC.

Question 8

What are key (dis)advantages of the ‘protect open’ adaptation strategy?

Answer 8

Advantages:
* Increased safety with stronger dikes
* open conneciton with sea

Disadvantages:
* super dikes require much space
* public resistance maybe?
* catastrophic damage if something actually goes wrong

Question 9

What are key (dis)advantages of the ‘protect-closed’ adaptation strategy?

Answer 9

Advantages:
* Dutch coast is protected for floodings and erosion with barriers and storm surge barriers
* handles a big sea level rise (more than protect open)

Disadvantages:
* How are super pumping stations and large water retention areas gonna be constructed?
* Huge damage when something goes wrong

Question 10

What are key (dis)advantages of the ‘advance’ adaptation strategy?

Answer 10

Advantages:
* development potential (new cities and airports etc…)
* extra defensive border along the actual coastline
* innovative form of land reclamation

Disadvantages:
* costs a lot of sand and money in general
* Sea level could rise faster than what is available with this

Question 11

What are key (dis)advantages of the ‘accommodate’ adaptation strategy?

Answer 11

Advantages:
* water and salt tolerant land use areas.
* a lot of space for the river

Disadvantages:
* a lot of existing land could cease to exist.

Question 12

Why did criticism on the conventional engineering approach emerge?

Answer 12

ecological functions and the role of natural dynamics were overlooked. –> the engineers were looked at as ‘landscape destroyers’.

Engineers and ecologists started to work together.

Question 13

What is the ‘nature-based approach’ in the sense of climate adaptation?

Answer 13

Promoting nature as a means for providing solutions to climate mitigation and adaptation challenges.

Question 14

What are nature based solutions?

Answer 14

Nature-based solutions are engineering designs for societal challenges stemming from the understanding of natural ecosystems and their functions and services and making use of these natural and environmental assets

Question 15

Example of nature based solution in estuaries, deltas or coastal lagoons?

Answer 15

Creation or restoration of large tidal marshes (wetlands) of mangroves to provide extra water storage areas.

Question 16

What are NBS for cities behind sandy coastlines?

Answer 16

Sand nourishment: sand motor. Beach and dune barriers are crucial defences against coastal flooding.

Creation of shellfish reefs.

Question 17

Explain the three typical strategies in NL (1990-2011)

Answer 17

Before 1990: hard engineering

From 1990: soft engineering with adoption of national policy of ‘dynamic preservation’.

In 2011: introduction of policy strategy ‘Building with Nature’ –> sand motor.
* from reactive to proactive

Question 18

What are opportunities of NBS?

Answer 18

• multiple benefits in addition to flood protection: more biodiversity, viable ecosystems, nature development
• higher adaptive capacity when compared to conventional solutions

Question 19

What are barriers for implementation of NBS?

Answer 19

• framing of nature is challenging
• uncertainty about performance and costs, unpredictability of natural dynamics
• institutional, regulatory and governance barriers

Question 20

What does the literature say about NBS?

Answer 20

They have high potential, but their implications for planning and governance must be researched further.

Question 21

Explain the most important adaptation strategies of IPCC

Answer 21

• Retreat: reducing the exposure to coastal hazards by moving people,
  assets, and activities landward to higher ground
• Accommodate: people continue to use the land at risk but do not attempt to prevent the land from being flooded
• Protect: hard structures such as seawalls and dikes, as well as nature-based solutions such as dunes and vegetation, to protect the land from the sea so that existing land uses can continue

Question 22

What are water governance challenges?

Answer 22

• Difficult choices are needed now > reserving land for spatial measures: water storage areas, NBS, dike strengthening, river-widening, urban climate adaptation etc
• Water and soil as guiding principles for spatial planning
• Adopting an integrated, and where possible, an ecosystem-based floodplain management approach
• Making use of existing landscape values to create more liveable, aesthetic and sustainable water management solutions
• Developing a package of measures requires both national coordination and a democratic design-led planning process in all regions
• Designing inclusive and collaborative water governance arrangements
• Empowering boundary spanners (‘spatial integrators’) to undertake the crossboundary work that is needed to develop coordination and collaboration across organisational, sectoral, and disciplinary boundaries
• Designing policy instruments for improving spatial quality, NBS, urban adaptation..
• Adaptation: dealing with sea-level rise and adopting a very long-time horizon