Managed retreat of settlements and infrastructures: ecological restoration as an opportunity to overcome maladaptive coastal development in France

Abstract

The effects of climate change on coastal risk factors are increasing due to both rising sea levels and increasingly intense coastal floodings. However, these changes are only just beginning to be incorporated into planning strategies for coastal economies and land use in France. Recent coastal storms marked the turning point, and public authorities have now started to revise coastal management legislation, stating that the managed retreat of settlements and infrastructure is the preferred strategy to adapt to climate change. To date, this managed retreat has almost exclusively been discussed in relation to the current political, social, and economic obstacles that make it difficult to relocate equipment and houses inland. Here, we add to this discussion by depicting how the careful ecological restoration of dunes and salt marshes on land made available by managed retreat could overcome some of these obstacles. First, we describe three possible strategies to adapt to sea‐level rise as well as the maladaptation of the current strategy. Then, we focus on the limitations and advantages of ecological restoration in terms of managed retreat and vice versa. Finally, we depict how a new kind of land lease, introduced in draft legislation, can help tackle the multitemporal and multispatial issues that currently hinder managed retreat.

Managing retreat for sandy beach areas under sea level rise

“…Since community inclusion is imperative to successfully execute threshold-based retreat, this approach may help to reduce societal resistance to retreat 76 . Additionally, post-retreat plans should be crafted to determine the use and jurisdiction of the retreated area, possibly through dune restoration or land trusts 77 , 78 . For this study, a fixed distance of 6 m from the coastal erosion line was chosen because Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules § 13-5-2 uses this metric to determine when a structure is “imminently threatened” and has a seamless application to publicly available data.…”

Managed retreat and planned retreat: a systematic literature review

“…Modelling comparing beach renourishment versus managed retreat by Cutler et al [172] offers a financial viability threshold for coastal protect and accommodate vis-à-vis managed retreat options. In addition, nature-based solutions are shown to provide economic and environmental benefits to coastal locations while also enabling a staged managed retreat [173][174][175].…”

The calm before the storm: How climate change drives forestry evolutions

“…Two interviewees, both prominent members of the French ProSilva branch (ProSilva 2017), stressed the long-term ecological and economic resilience to climate change provided by irregular shelterwood, selective thinning, and species mixture: "A diverse system is more stable, as it lasts better than a 'house of cards' system" (V13). It must also be said that intensive management should not be banned from adaptations aimed at ecological conservation: it can be a prerequisite for operations focused on ecological restorations or rehabilitation (e.g., Fouqueray et al 2018), all the more in a rapidly changing context (Aitken et al 2008).…”