Bruce Glavovic

Mobilizing Knowledge for Coastal Governance: Re-Framing the Science–Policy Interface for Integrated Coastal Management

Integrated coastal management (ICM) has long sought to create political settings within which coastal communities can arrive at collective decisions, and support these decisions with the best quality knowledge available. Traditionally this has been through the integration of natural and social science with the political processes of decision-making and management, across the so-called science–policy interface. Contemporary developments in the field have seen the rising prominence of governance models, with a number of scholars arguing this to have implications for the shape of the science–policy interface. This article reviews the evolution in the theory and practice of the science–policy interface for ICM, before arguing that in the future the interface should be framed as a “governance setting.” To this extent, the article distills four important guiding principles, including an interface that: (i) espouses an epistemology based in the dialogic mobilization of knowledge; (ii) includes all diverse knowledge perspectives; (iii) integrates disparate knowledge systems through dialogic reciprocity and co-existence; and (iv) has explicit regard for the negotiated quality of knowledge relative to a specific issue.

Coastal Sustainability—An Elusive Pursuit?: Reflections on South Africa's Coastal Policy Experience

Sustainability is an elusive pursuit. But coastal poverty is a pervasive and debilitating reality for many coastal communities and the coastal management literature provides little explicit direction for tackling poverty. How then can a more people-centred, pro-poor Integrated Coastal Management approach be developed and implemented? The Sustainable Livelihoods approach provides a complementary analytical framework for understanding the nature of poverty and the challenges and opportunities for building sustainable coastal livelihoods. This approach has guided aspects of South Africas coastal policy implementation effort. This experience exposes significant challenges that must be faced in converting sustainability rhetoric into practical reality and reveals lessons for confronting the underlying drivers of coastal poverty. Ultimately, a people-centred, pro-poor approach must empower poor coastal communities to pursue the mercurial ideal of coastal sustainability through practical, locally relevant interventions.

A New Coastal Policy for South Africa

South Africa?s coastal resources offer important opportunities for contributing to the much-needed uplifting and transformation of society and the economy. Government, in partnership with the private sector and civil society, has developed a new policy for managing the coast that aims to promote sustainable coastal development through integrated coastal management. This policy introduces a new approach to coastal management in South Africa. Rooted in extensive public participation, research, and analysis, the policy outlines a vision for the coast, as well as principles, goals, and objectives for coastal management. It also presents a plan of action for implementing the policy. This article provides a brief introduction to the policy formulation and adoption process as well as key elements of the policy. It also highlights the significance of the policy formulation process and its findings for South Africa and coastal management, and for public policy making more generally.

From frontier economics to an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts

Ecological economics is a field of enquiry that has had, with a few exceptions, an almost entirely terrestrial focus. Given the fundamental ecological and economic importance of oceanic and coastal ecosystems, and the accelerating deterioration of these ecosystems, we argue that there is an urgent case to redress this imbalance. In so doing, the scope of ecological economics will be extended and compelling insights developed and applied to better understand and govern marine systems. Although we acknowledge that there is no unequivocal or unitary view of what might constitute an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts, we assert that it should consist of at least ‘four cornerstones’: (1) sustainability as the normative goal; (2) an approach that sees the socio-economic system as a sub-system of the global ecological system; (3) a complex systems approach; and (4) transdisciplinarity and methodological pluralism. Using these four cornerstones, we identify a future research agenda for an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts. Specifically, we conclude that ecological economists must work with other disciplines, especially those involved in marine policy and practice, to move from a ‘frontier economics’ (which has dominated marine management) to entrench an ‘ecological economics’ of the oceans and coasts as the dominant paradigm.

Towards deliberative coastal governance: insights from South Africa and the Mississippi Delta

Coastal sustainability is elusive in South Africa and the Mississippi delta. These case studies and convergent literatures demonstrate the merits of reconceptualising coastal management as a transformative practice of deliberative governance. A normative framework is presented that focuses attention on underpinning deliberative outcomes to enable governance actors and networks to build cognitive, democratic, sociopolitical and institutional capacity to transform unsustainable and maladaptive coastal practices. But operationalising such intentions is complex and contested and requires a volte-face in thinking and practice. The South African and Mississippi delta experiences provide insights about how to develop a deliberative praxis of coastal governance based on consideration of the choice of process, timeliness, quality of process, equity and representation, connections to the policy cycle, impact, implementation and institutionalisation.

Waves of Adversity, Layers of Resilience: Floods, Hurricanes, Oil Spills and Climate Change in the Mississippi Delta

The Mississippi delta is a place of remarkable ecological, cultural and economic significance. Prevailing practices are, however, unsustainable; and climate change compounds disaster risk in the region. Delta communities need to build layers of resilience as a buffer against the waves of adversity they face. The historical context and distinctive social-ecological systems of this region are described and the relationship between resource use, disaster risk and resilience explored, with a focus on Hurricane Katrina and the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This exploration highlights four delta imperatives: (i) stem wetland loss and restore delta ecosystems to sustain coastal livelihoods and reduce disaster risk in the face of climate change; (ii) confront the ‘safe development paradox’; (iii) address the drivers and root causes of social vulnerability that predispose marginalised groups and communities to disaster; and (iv) reframe governance thinking and practices that lead to environmental degradation and compound disaster risk. Barriers and opportunities are then discussed with respect to the human, physical, economic, social and natural capital needed to construct layers of resilience. A process of deliberative delta governance is recommended to foster community resilience, adaptive capacity and sustainability. Three priority actions are highlighted to translate this recommendation into practical reality: (i) articulate, share and celebrate delta narratives about overcoming adversity and building resilience; (ii) design and institutionalise inclusive processes of community disaster risk reduction and resilience planning; and (iii) sustain region-wide strategic collaborative planning processes to address the intractability of climate change that delta communities cannot resolve alone.

Disasters and the Continental Shelf: Exploring New Frontiers of Risk

This chapter locates ocean and coastal sustainability in a global context. It underscores the pivotal role that coastal margins play in sustaining life on earth. Overexploitation and degradation of coastal resources and ecosystems have stimulated accelerating exploration and exploitation in ever deeper and more remote oceanic realms, with attendant escalating disaster risk. The chapter also explores the BP-Deepwater Horizon (BP-DWH) oil spill disaster to learn lessons and inform future efforts to reduce risk and build resilience and sustainability at the margin. It focuses on the need to better understand complexity and risk at the margin and considers the implications for how social choices are made under conditions of complexity, scientific uncertainty and socio-political ambiguity. The chapter highlights significant developments in risk governance and integrated coastal management (ICM). Building on these developments, it outlines key elements of a new conceptual framework for risk reduction and resilience and sustainability on coastal margins. Keywords: BP-DWH oil spill disaster; coastal resources; continental shelf; integrated coastal management (ICM); risk governance

Healing Brazil's Blue Amazon: The Role of Knowledge Networks in Nurturing Cross-Scale Transformations at the Frontlines of Ocean Sustainability

This paper dedicates to understanding of what is needed to achieve the transformation of ocean governance. Based on the theory of transformative agency conceptualized in a multi-level governance context, we build on recent novel inter- and transdisciplinary research in Brazil to explore the opportunities for transformation in the dynamic, complex and multi-level field of ocean governance. We focus this analysis on three transformation processes towards developing a socially and ecologically coherent marine protected area network as the core of a marine spatial planning process for enhanced ecosystem-based polycentric governance of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The findings illuminate leverage points for achieving (much needed) transformation in Brazilian ocean governance and potentially beyond. These include: connecting transformative actions into coherent narratives and testing strategic advice derived from theories of transformative agency to promote regime shifts in ocean governance systems; setting of more ambitious social mobilization targets; fostering orchestration of knowledge-networks considering multiple issues, territorial and institutional levels; implementing institutional learning experiments; supporting transformational trajectories towards co-evolutionary, polycentric, ecosystem- and area-based ocean governance systems; and pursuing gradual, incremental structural understanding of a given knowledge network field as a major driver of catalysing transformative change. Hereby, this article advances understanding of how to better navigate the transformation towards enhanced sustainability in an important part of the Atlantic and hence of our global ocean.

Introduction: Learning from Natural Hazards Experience to Adapt to Climate Change

This book explores lessons learned from the study and real-world experience of natural hazards to help communities plan for and adapt to climate change.

Conclusions: Integrating Natural Hazards Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation through Natural Hazards Planning

A significant part of adapting to climate change involves learning from the many lessons found in planning for natural hazards and acting on this information. In the preceding chapters four imperatives have emerged that will be used to summarise our collective findings and structure a set of lessons to help stimulate and inform a still nascent dialogue among local, regional, national and international role-players focused on one of the most pressing issues facing communities around the world—adapting to the effects of climate change.