International opportunities for broad scale coastal simulation

Abstract

The preceding chapters of this book have looked at the details of Integrated Assessment on the UK coast, especially in Norfolk. In addition to explaining this analysis in detail, the book aims to look for wider and more generic lessons about Integrated Assessment for coasts. In this regard, this chapter turns the focus to other parts of the world and the ‘global’ coast in general. Through diverse coastal examples from Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Italy, Japan and the USA, the opportunities and challenges associated with transferring the Tyndall Coastal Simulator approach to other locations are critically evaluated. These diverse case studies indicate a number of similarities with the tensions that are apparent in the North Norfolk case study. This includes multiple drivers such as increasing population pressures, changing land use, relative sea-level rise, management conflicts and significant/diverse stakeholder concerns. They also highlight important coastal issues that are not addressed within the Tyndall Coastal Simulator but could in principle be added – such as tsunamis, hurricanes, changing marine ecosystems, etc., as well as the range of ecological and socio-economic contexts within which the different coastline study areas are embedded. Despite these contrasts, it is clear that in general terms, the nature of multiple interacting coastal pressures and drivers means that there are numerous coastal locations around the world that would benefit from an Integrated Assessment (IA) approach. Such an approach provides a proactive method to assess present and future problems as well as considering more sustainable responses to both long-term pressures and following episodic extreme events. From this foundation, Chap. 14 examines the way forward for Integrated Assessment of coastal areas.