Meghan Alexander, Emma McKinley and Rhoda Ballinger Cardiff University

Transcription

1 Is it possible to deliver sustainable flood and coastal erosion risk management whilst securing the wellbeing of future generations? Insights from Wales Meghan Alexander, Emma McKinley and Rhoda Ballinger Cardiff University Flood & Coast 2018: Working with Communities (4) Addressing the long

2 Overview Introduction to CoastWEB & Resilcoast Welsh context Methodology A framework for evaluating governance Preliminary findings Next steps

3 Introduction to CoastWEB & Resilcoast CoastWEB - Valuing the contribution which Coastal habitats make to human health and WEllBeing, with a focus on the alleviation of coastal natural hazards and extreme events Interdisciplinary approach to address various questions People s values in relation to coastal environments, particularly saltmarshes How can we better align and coordinate FCERM and wellbeing agendas through multi-level governance? RESILCOAST - Research to facilitate coastal resilience Patterns and processes of resilience and regime shifts in saltmarshes Influence of biodiversity, grazing and climate change on resilience and regime shifts Implications for shoreline management planning Ecosystem services values

4 Welsh context 60% of the population live on, or near to, the coast 77% of the coastline is designated for its environmental importance 357,000 Welsh properties at risk of flooding (rivers, sea and surface water) Welsh coastal storms Winter 2013/14 23% of Welsh coastline already eroding The coast provides a range of ecosystem services

5 The Welsh Context New legislative portfolio Founded on principles of sustainable development and ecosystem approach

6 The Welsh Context Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 places a statutory well-being duty on all public bodies Well-being goals 1. Prosperity 2. Resilience (ecosystem) 3. Health 4. Equality 5. Cohesive communities 6. Culture and language 7. Global responsibility

7 Methodology Is it possible to deliver sustainable flood and coastal erosion risk management whilst securing the well-being of future generations? To answer this, we need to look across multiple (overlapping) governance arrangements, their underlying principles and evaluate according to the well-being agenda Climate change Insurance & reinsurance Environment & conservation Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management Spatial planning (land) Marine planning Where does FCERM governance facilitate or constrain the pursuit of well-being across spatiotemporal scales? Civil contingencies Examples of the relevant policy domains for studying FCERM

8 Methodology Evaluation of current governance for FCERM Evaluation framework informed via review of grey and academic literature to identify criteria and benchmarks In-depth policy and legal analysis Stakeholder interviews (national to local scales) x2 case studies in SW and N Wales x16 in-depth interviews in NW Wales (Resilcoast), with CoastWEB interviews ongoing

9 Stakeholder interviews at national to local scales

10 A framework for evaluating Ecosystem Service governance Core principles in grey and academic literature e.g. sustainable development principle, Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Risk management etc. 19 evaluation criteria & benchmarks for success Process-orientated Integration Collaboration & cooperation Stakeholder participation Scale interactions Knowledge Iterative learning Uncertainty Flexibility Capacity Valuation Resource efficiency Transparency Accountability Social equity & justice Outcome and impact-orientated Societal resilience Ecosystem resilience Economic resilience Prevention Well-being environmental, economic, social and cultural

11 Preliminary findings There is a strong policy discourse that embeds and integrates the Sustainable Development Principle with the Well-being goals in FCERM Underpinning all of the work on flood and coastal erosion risk management is the Welsh Government s commitment to sustainable development, in terms of well-being, as our core organising principle. The key aspects of wellbeing include taking action on social justice, poverty and equality and living within environmental limits, and these are all integral to delivering an effective flood and coastal erosion risk management system for all. (Welsh Government, National FCERM Strategy in Wales 2011: 6).

12 Preliminary findings Strengths Stakeholders are very positive about the potential of recent legislative changes seen as creating opportunities for greater collaboration, crosssector working and bridging sectoral gaps Future Generations Act seen as an important bridging mechanism Voice to more actors and shared language Certain aspects of FCERM governance are incredibly strong in terms of well-being goals E.g. Natural flood management supports (ecosystem) resilience, health and global responsibility

13 Preliminary findings Limitations Translating discourse to practice there is a cloud of uncertainty surrounding implementation and expectations Concern over resources constraints Risk that this will become a tick box exercise How to weight and negotiate different wellbeing goals remains unclear and presents a real challenge for legitimate governance Managed realignment is essential for sustainable FCERM, but contradicts certain wellbeing goals and raises issues of social justice

14 Preliminary findings An example of scale conflicts and well-being goals the case of natural Flood Management and managed realignment Supporting (ecosystem) resilience and restoring biodiversity (aligned to global responsibility goal) Potential for economic opportunities Protection from flooding A healthier Wales Cultural services But when translated to the local scale Cohesive communities? Health? Prosperity?

15 Conclusions Is it possible to deliver sustainable flood and coastal erosion risk management whilst securing the well-being of future generations? A matter of scale. Clearly the well-being goals cannot be achieved at all spatio-temporal scales and there will be conflicts between the national to local level Recommendation for embedding well-being assessment within Shoreline Management Plans and multi-agency flood plans Transparency is key! There is a need for decision support tools to help perform trade-off analysis, negotiate and justify the weighting assigned to well-being goals in relation to FCERM activities

16 Next steps Continuation of stakeholder interviews and ongoing evaluation Stakeholder-led evaluation and weighting between criteria Stakeholder Network Analysis Develop recommendations for policy and practice for FCERM and beyond i.e. how to support transition towards more integrated ecosystem services governance? Opportunities for decision support tools to facilitate trade-off analysis

17 Any