Webinar: Thinking the unthinkable: Preparing for climate change at the coast

Thursday, January 25, 2024 9:30 am PST / 2:00 pm NST  / 5:30 pm GMT

The goal of this webinar is to provide insights from the English coastline (especially in the Southeast), and hopefully generate comparative discussions with the Canadian perspective. The webinar will consider climate change adaptation at the coast in England from a planning perspective. Planning is one of our principal tools for shaping human interactions with our surroundings in socio-ecological systems. In England, as with other coastal countries, states, or provinces, this comes with a set of unique challenges, especially as sea levels rise and storms become more frequent and intense. Firstly, around 45.6% of the English coastline is protected by coastal defences (walls and artificial beaches), which can generate a false sense of security. Some areas are in a develop-defend-develop cycle. A rigid planning and flood zone categorisation system can also block innovative thinking by coastal authorities. Nature-based solutions are receiving more backing from national policy, and being implemented effectively in some areas. However, the extent to which all of these processes engage the public, are transparent, or participatory is up for debate.

Presenter:

Dr. Glen Smith, a research fellow at the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University in England, is working to better understand the dynamic impacts of climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies at the coast and the governance of these systems. A social scientist with more than 10 years’ experience in studying

marine and coastal issues, he recently completed a Visiting Fellowship with the Ocean Frontier Institute. During this appointment, he examined approaches to climate change adaptation at the coast in southeast England and in Nova Scotia. He completed his PhD in natural resource management at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, where he focused on marine spatial planning (MSP) in Scotland, especially on process transparency, participation, and power dynamics in the governance of MSP. Dr. Smith has since held postdoctoral positions in Cork, Ireland, and in London researching the social elements of climate change adaptation.