Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...

104 Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and VulnerabilitiesThe aforementioned Cape Cod study highlights another advance in adaptation planning:the expansion of collaborative networks and stakeholder participation in the planningprocess. Robust adaptation planning necessitates both expert knowledge regardingbiophysical climate change impacts and regional and local knowledge regarding howthose changes might impact valued human and ecological systems and the range ofrelevant policy responses. Adaptation planning is therefore increasingly undertakenthrough partnerships among federal, state, and local government agencies, research institutions,and non-profit organizations. Such partnerships have facilitated knowledgetransfers and supported adaptation planning efforts in Oregon (State of Oregon, 2010)and California (California Natural Resources Agency, 2009) as well as the cities of NewYork (New York City Panel on Climate Change, 2010) and Boston (Adaptation AdvisoryCommittee, 2011). This has created greater opportunities for learning and enhanced thepractical utility of adaptation planning.Adaptation Planning ChallengesDespite the rapid expansion of coastal adaptation planning, challenges remain in translatingsuch planning efforts into increased coastal-systems resilience to the impacts ofclimate change (Berrang-Ford et al., 2011; Preston et al., 2011a). A central challenge isthe availability of knowledge and tools that enable confident planning for the future;for example, considerable uncertainty persists with respect to projections of future sealevelrise as well as information regarding future demographic and economic trajectories(Preston et al., 2011b, see also Section 2.2). Guidance on flexible decision pathways isneeded to assist decision makers with evaluating and staging adaptation decisions whilerecognizing that understanding of the future will always be imperfect. Constraints onfinancial and human resources within organizations may hinder attempts to managesuch uncertainties (Moser & Ekstrom, 2010). Developing strategies for overcoming suchconstraints is therefore an important but often overlooked component of adaptationplanning. In one constructive example, the City of Homer, Alaska intends to enact a sustainabilityfund to recruit staff and finance adaptation measures (City of Homer, 2011).The challenges in implementing adaptation plans extend beyond the resourcing oforganizations. Although many adaptation actions for coastal areas can be categorizedas “no regrets” actions that pose few opportunity costs (California Natural ResourcesAgency, 2009), more substantive actions may have larger policy or legal hurdles. Forexample, restrictions on development in vulnerable areas or the implementation ofplanned retreat may be challenged as regulatory “takings” that require just compensation(Craig, 2010), which may force tradeoffs between coastal protection and propertyrights. Overlapping and sometimes conflicting laws, often designed without considerationof a changing climate, can prevent the adoption of adaptive measures. In the AlligatorRiver National Wildlife Refuge/Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula Climate AdaptationProject, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set out to evaluatethe effects of different adaptation strategies on areas likely to be impacted by sea-levelrise. The strategies included constructing oyster reefs to buffer shorelines from wavesand storm surges, restoring the natural hydrologic regime and associated wetland systems,and planting salt- and flood-tolerant species, several of which required federal andstate permits. The permit required through the state’s Coastal Area Management Act