Strategies for adapting to hazards and environmental inequalities in coastal urban areas: what kind of resilience for these territories?

Abstract

Abstract. The ongoing phenomenon of climate change is leading to an upsurge in the number of extreme events. Territories must adapt to these modifications in order to protect their populations and the properties present in coastal areas. The adaptation of coastal areas also aims to make them more resilient to future events. In this article, we examine two strategies for adapting to coastal risks: holding the coastal line through hard constructions such as seawalls or ripraps and the managed retreat of activities and populations to a part of the territory not exposed to hazards. In France, these approaches are financed by a solidarity insurance system at the national level as well as local taxes. These solidarity systems aim to compensate the affected populations and finance implementation of the strategies chosen by local authorities. However, the French mainland coast generally attracts affluent residents, the price of land being higher than inland. This situation induces the presence of inequalities in these territories, inequalities which can be maintained or reinforced in the short and medium term when a defense strategy based on hard constructions is implemented. In such a trajectory, it appears that these territories would be less resilient in the long term because of the maintenance costs of the structures and the uncertainties relating to the hazards (submersion, rising sea levels, erosion). Conversely, with a managed-retreat strategy, inequalities would instead be done away with since property and populations would no longer be exposed to hazards, which would cost society less and would lead these territories towards greater resilience in the long term. Only one social group would be strongly impacted by this strategy in the short term when they are subjected to a managed retreat to another part of the territory.

Managed retreat and planned retreat: a systematic literature review

“…The vast majority explore these factors at the state scale via localized/regional case study examples. This trend is reflected across a range of geographies, including the United States [57,58,69–78]; South America [79,80]; Canada [81,82]; Western European countries including France, Germany, Austria, and Sweden [83–93]; the United Kingdom and Ireland [56,94,95]; and the South Asia and Asia-Pacific region [20,21,52,82,85,96–107]. Almost all of these papers are concerned with understanding retreat from coastal or low-lying areas, with the exception of some of the USA papers where studies have explored retreat in the aftermath of significant events (for example, flood events in southern states, or the response to Hurricane Sandy [108–111], or where the focus has been on resilient urban infrastructure (e.g.…”

“…The vast majority explore these factors at the state scale via localized/regional case study examples. This trend is reflected across a range of geographies, including the United States [57,58,[69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78]; South America [79,80]; Canada [81,82]; Western European countries including France, Germany, Austria, and Sweden [83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93]; the United Kingdom and Ireland [56,94,95]; and the South Asia and Asia-Pacific region [20,21,52,82,85,[96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107]. Almost all of these papers are concerned with understanding retreat from coastal or lowlying areas, with the exception of some o...…”

Inequalities and solidarities: interactions and impacts of sea-level-rise adaptation policies

“…The notion of environment https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss1/art27/ is usually restricted to natural resources, but in some cases, it may be extended to include all the services contributing to living conditions in line with recent work on regional well-being (OECD 2018). In coastal environments facing coastal risks, environmental inequalities can be broken down into inequality of access to the coast as an amenity and place of residence, inequality of exposure to risks, and inequality in the capacity to mobilize public authorities (Kolb et al 2014, Long et al 2021. In addition to these regional inequalities, there are social inequalities (income, employment, education, gender, ethnic background, etc.…”

“…After the Xynthia storm, the INEGALITTO project [5] aimed to analyze environmental inequality in the management of coastal amenities and risks and, in particular, the extent to which risk and vulnerability management policies affected such inequality (Long et al 2019(Long et al , 2021. The interview-based survey (Table 3) provided the means to analyze residents' representations of coastal risk in Aytré and Charron municipalities, to address the issue of compensation for households exposed to coastal risk and to compare differential treatment between areas.…”

“…Relocation promotes the maintenance, and even the development, of natural sea-front areas and thereby the resilience of coasts, which benefit users, tourists, residents, and day visitors from the hinterland. Conversely, protection by sea defenses (dikes) favors the status quo and may enhance existing inequalities (Long et al 2021). Furthermore, in the medium-term, dikes have been shown to reduce beach size, under certain morphological conditions, affecting all users except for those living along the seafront who keep their view and privileged access to the sea.…”