Public perceptions of nature-based coastal solutions in the UK.

Autor: Seenath A; Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Electronic address: avidesh.seenath@eci.ox.ac.uk., Romeo Mahadeo SM; Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom., Catterson J; School of Energy, Construction and Environment, Coventry University, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of environmental management [J Environ Manage] 2024 Nov 29; Vol. 373, pp. 123413. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Nov 29.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123413
Abstrakt: Coastal scientists are increasingly advocating for nature-based coastal solutions (NBCS) to ensure long-term coastal sustainability. Implementing NBCS will change coastal landscapes, necessitating consultation with the wider public as such changes directly affect the socio-cultural values of coastal zone residents and users. We, therefore, investigate public willingness to support, preferences for, and perceived effectiveness of coastal management solutions, nature-based and otherwise, focusing on the UK as a case study. We do this through an online survey of >500 UK residents, capturing their demographics, place of residence, and coastal management perceptions. We apply inductive coding, statistical, and geospatial techniques to analyse our survey data. While we find consensus on the need for coastal management, there are divergent coastal management preferences and perceptions: NBCS are most preferred while hard defences are considered most effective. We find that people with coastal management and/or engineering experience are more convinced by NBCS effectiveness, while coastal residents believe in hard defences. Although NBCS may have several environmental benefits (e.g., coastal protection, carbon sequestration, greater biodiversity), we find that public knowledge on their likely effectiveness is limited. Therefore, if NBCS is deemed to be the way forward for coastal sustainability, more local stakeholder engagement on NBCS will be needed, potentially through systems mapping, in order to facilitate more robust and inclusive coastal management policies.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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