Coastal Development: Resilience, Restoration and Infrastructure Requirements

Coastal ecosystems are undergoing profound changes, threatened by climate change, urbanisation, over-exploitation of resources and, more recently, COVID-19. A unique window of opportunity exists to protect coastal ecosystems and coastal communities from further harm in a rapidly changing world. Coastal restoration is one action that can boost economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, while preserving ecosystem services, community cohesion and climate adaptation.

This publication, part of the Ocean Panel Blue Paper series, makes the economic and security case for the development of resilient coastlines, and examines trade-offs between coastal protection and infrastructure development. The paper illustrates that practical solutions exist which can be implemented to allow economic, infrastructure and social development, without compromising the integrity and benefits of coastal ecosystems, or disadvantaging the people who rely upon them.

This paper identifies opportunities for nations to cooperate by building upon past success to realise a sustainable ocean economy through championing the following four coastal opportunities for action: build ecosystem resilience; mitigate impacts of terrestrial and extractive activities on coastal ecosystems; advance sustainable, future-proofed blue infrastructure; and enhance community resilience, equity and access.

The publication describes coastal changes and challenges, including climate change (chapter 2), risks to coastal resilience (chapter 3), strategies and actions to build coastal resilience to effectively manage the challenges wrought by coastal development and climate change (chapter 4). Conclusions and opportunities for action are reported in chapter 5.