Open AccessResponding to Sea Level Rise: Does Short‐Term Risk Reduction Inhibit Successful Long‐Term Adaptation?
Author(s) -
Keeler A. G.,
McNamara D. E.,
Irish J. L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
earth's future
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.641
H-Index - 39
ISSN - 2328-4277
DOI - 10.1002/2018ef000828
Subject(s) - relocation , term (time) , adaptation (eye) , climate change , business , environmental planning , environmental resource management , climate change adaptation , natural resource economics , public economics , economics , geography , computer science , psychology , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , programming language , neuroscience
Most existing coastal climate‐adaptation planning processes, and the research supporting them, tightly focus on how to use land use planning, policy tools, and infrastructure spending to reduce risks from rising seas and changing storm conditions. While central to community response to sea level rise, we argue that the exclusive nature of this focus biases against and delays decisions to take more discontinuous, yet proactive, actions to adapt—for example, relocation and aggressive individual protection investments. Public policies should anticipate real estate market responses to risk reduction to avoid large costs—social and financial—when and if sea level rise and other climate‐related factors elevate the risks to such high levels that discontinuous responses become the least bad alternative.