Marcello Sano

Improving cross-sectoral climate change adaptation for coastal settlements: insights from South East Queensland, Australia

Climate change impacts affecting coastal areas, such as sea-level rise and storm surge events, are expected to have significant social, economic and environmental consequences worldwide. Ongoing population growth and development in highly urbanised coastal areas will exacerbate the predicted impacts on coastal settlements. Improving the adaptation potential of highly vulnerable coastal communities will require greater levels of planning and policy integration across sectors and scales. However, to date, there is little evidence in the literature which demonstrates how climate policy integration is being achieved. This paper contributes to this gap in knowledge by drawing on the example provided by the process of developing cross-sectoral climate change adaptation policies and programmes generated for three coastal settlement types as part of the South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative (SEQCARI), a 3-year multi-sectoral study of climate change adaptation options for human settlements in South East Queensland, Australia. In doing so, we first investigate the benefits and challenges to cross-sectoral adaptation to address climate change broadly and in coastal areas. We then describe how cross-sectoral adaptation policies and programmes were generated and appraised involving the sectors of urban planning and management, coastal management, emergency management, human health and physical infrastructure as part of SEQCARI. The paper concludes by discussing key considerations that can inform the development and assessment of cross-sectoral climate change adaptation policies and programmes in highly urbanised coastal areas.

Improving public engagement in ICZM: a practical approach.

Stakeholder engagement is at the core of successful ICZM stories. This paper proposes a practical approach to set the basis for a wide and efficient stakeholder engagement process in ICZM which was tested in Cantabria, a Region in the north of Spain. The coastal system was modelled by defining three basic interacting components: coastal units, coastal activities and coastal stakeholders. This approach allowed the identification of a very clear set of relationships emerging from a survey of stakeholders and an assessment of coastal projects. This process was also useful to inform stakeholders about a new regional coastal strategy and to consider their opinion on coastal issues and public participation. From a very ill-defined situation, a clear relationship chart was defined and a spatial database implemented which conveys all the data gathered into a useful tool for coastal managers.

The Strategy for Coastal Sustainability: A Spanish Initiative for ICZM

The Spanish Strategy for Coastal Sustainability (SCS) was an initiative aimed at implementing coastal interventions under the principles of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and improving the state of the coast at the Spanish national level. The SCS, promoted by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, started as a broad national strategy in 2005 and was finally delivered as a coastal planning instrument at the regional level in late 2007, designed to address coastal policies within the Spanish maritime–terrestrial public domain (MTPD). The initiative was triggered by the increasing pressure on the coastal zone and its preparation was supported by different European initiatives, first of all the European Recommendation on ICZM (413/2002/EC), while taking into consideration the future requirements of the Mediterranean Protocol on ICZM of the Barcelona Convention, signed in February 2008. Technically, the preparation of the SCS included four steps: (i) a Stakeholder Identification and Engagement process, including a stocktaking of the laws and regulations, (ii) the design of a broad Strategic Framework for the Spanish coastal zone, including a set of specific objectives and the instruments for its implementation, (iii) the signature of cooperation agreements for ICZM between the central government and the regions, and (iv) a detailed Technical Diagnosis at the local scale, designed to address future coastal interventions in the maritime–terrestrial public domain and its areas of influence. This article aims to: (i) illustrate the triggering factors of the SCS, including the Spanish coastal issues, the administrative framework at the national level, and the European and international policies addressing coastal management and (ii) illustrate the approaches and methodologies used for the preparation of the SCS, reporting the most relevant quantitative results. The article concludes that the SCS gave a strong contribution in the construction of a base of knowledge for the coastal zone and to improve coastal management practices. Despite this, complex distributions of competences still undermine the implementation of strategic interventions. In this context, the future ratification of the ICZM Protocol of the Barcelona Convention represents an opportunity to use the SCS process results and improve coastal management practices and the state of the coast.

A participatory approach for system conceptualization and analysis applied to coastal management in Egypt

This paper presents a participatory approach to conceptualizing systems models and to identifying critical issues in complex socio-environmental systems, combining information collected from individual experts and stakeholders. A method was developed to: (i) capture individuals mental models in the form of causal loop diagrams, using interaction matrices; (ii) build a conceptual model of the system combining the contribution of all stakeholders; (iii) identify critical issues for the system and (iv) prepare a combined causal loop diagram for further discussion and system dynamics simulations. This method was used to engage a group of stakeholders involved in the preparation of a plan for integrated coastal zone management in Egypt. The experience helped highlight the critical issues of the system in terms of importance given by the actors involved in the exercise and their impact on the coastal system. This approach also demonstrated the utility of conceptualizing complex socio-environmental systems for identifying critical issues in data-poor environments.

Stakeholder participation and the use of web technology for MPA management

Stakeholder participation has received increased attention as a key process for enhancing mitigation of conflicts between different interests for the same resources and transparent decision-making in marine protected areas (MPAs). A wide range of advanced web tools is available nowadays that integrate stakeholder participation by generating new information and allow interaction between actors in MPA management. However, such technologies are frequently used without much consideration regarding the complexity of the decision to be made and the heterogeneity of stakeholder preferences and understanding in order to be related to these technologies. In order to understand how technology corresponds to the changing needs of MPA management, we have reviewed a range of different participation strategies adopted by web technology, based on a set of criteria that define a successful participation approach. We start from simple towards more sophisticated tools that have been developed worldwide in order to better inform decisions, and contribute to more effective and efficient MPA management. Finally, we draw a theoretical framework for the development of a community-based web tool with the capacity to incorporate the philosophy of stakeholder participation by generating new and high quality information flow for effective MPA management.

A Region at Risk: Policy Determination Through Vulnerability Hotspot Assessment

This chapter presents a ‘first cut’ regional vulnerability assessment that was undertaken for the South East Queensland (SEQ) region of Australia as part of a broader Climate Adaptation Research Initiative investigating adaptation of human settlements to climate change in SEQ. Despite the well-known shortcomings of vulnerability assessments, it is argued that regional vulnerability assessments of this type can be used as a starting point to enable the identification of vulnerability hotspots within a region and thus inform climate change adaptation planning and policy determination. Regional vulnerability assessments and the identification of vulnerability hotspots can provide insights and focus for policymakers across all sectors. They enable the identification of the circumstances that put people and places at risk as well as the factors that reduce people’s ability to respond to changes.

Seafloor mapping and cartography for the management of marine protected areas

Geographical information systems (GIS) and diagnostic cartography have traditionally been shown to be useful tools for the application of ecosystem-based management (EBM). To date, bionomic and diagnostic cartographic approaches have been commonly used to support decision-making in the selection, zoning and management of marine protected areas (MPAs), with a range of practical tools developed for this purpose. In addition to these, new and emerging technologies have the potential for generating better information for scientists, managers and other stakeholders alike, such as underwater survey tools, three dimensional (3D) visualisation systems and interactive web platforms. These new methodologies allow taking into account the spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability of the marine environment, to be managed for conservation. This paper reviews emerging and innovative technologies for marine mapping and marine spatial planning with a special focus on their use in MPA management. These include the generation and use of benthic cartography, scientific visualisation of ecosystem analyses, web-based GIS platforms and their final use as decision-support tools. Seafloor mapping technology has been improved and become more affordable for local scale MPA management purposes. However, the lack of coherent local scale spatial data still remains an issue, limiting the power of diagnostic cartography analyses within MPAs. The proposed framework can improve the generation and dissemination of cartographic and visual data, and allow for management approaches based on scientific knowledge and EBM principles, taking into account stakeholders needs.

A Meta-Modelling Approach for Estimating Long-Term Wave Run-Up and Total Water Level on Beaches

ABSTRACT Gainza, J.; Rueda, A.; Camus, P.; Tomás, A.; Méndez, F.J.; Sano, M., and Tomlinson, R., 2018. A meta-modelling approach for estimating long-term wave run-up and total water level on beaches. Wave run-up is defined as the maximum vertical extent of wave up-rush on a beach or structure above the sea water level from wave breaking. Wave run-up is responsible for beach and dune erosion and can be an important component of coastal flooding. Run-up can be estimated using either empirical formulations or sophisticated wave-breaking models with high computational demand. On the other hand, meta-models are efficient approximations of physical-process models that enable researchers to obtain long-term time series of wave dynamics. These hybrid models are developed by combining statistical techniques and numerical models. In this study, a methodology to transform offshore sea conditions to long-term time series of wave run-up is described. The methodology combined the construction of two meta-models of offshore wave propagation to coastal areas and of nearshore wave transformation to run-up. Clustering techniques were then implemented to select a subset of spectral patterns of the offshore conditions for nearshore transfer and a subset of sea states for reconstructing the run-up. Multivariate, radial-basis functions were then fitted to the outputs of the wave propagation and wave run-up simulations to reconstruct the time series of sea-state parameters in shallow water and the time series of run-up. This methodology was applied to Palm Beach on the Gold Coast (QLD, Australia). The nearshore wave climate was validated quantitatively, whereas the reconstructed wave run-up and total water-level time series was validated with a qualitative approximation, confirming that this methodology is capable of accurately transforming the offshore wave conditions into run-up time series. The total water levels were also reconstructed to show the applicability of the results to probabilistic flood-risk analyses.