Future proofing Scotland's remote coastal areas: evaluation of the potential for nature-based coastal adaptation

恢复自然海岸系统日益被视为一项有效战略，以适应和提高沿海地区对气候变化不利影响的复原力，预计沿海地区将受到严重影响，因为海平面上升会增加沿海洪水和侵蚀危害的可能性（IPCC，2019）.越来越多的方法通过与自然过程合作来恢复沿海动态，以管理脆弱的沿海地区，包括海滩营养，沙丘重建，湿地恢复和管理撤退，已经成为关键的自然为基础的解决方案（NBS）在过去的十年（例如Temmermanet al.，2013年）。在许多情况下，这些方法已作为示范项目在保护区、河口或面向城市的高密度住区实施（Bridges等人，2018年）。然而，偏远和人口稀少的农村地区往往仍然可以有令人惊讶的相关程度的沿海占用，从建筑物，基础设施，文化遗产和资源，连接这些社区和维持农村生计。因此，迫切需要考虑特别适合于农村沿海地区挑战的强有力的适应方针，其中包含相互关联的方面，例如关于现在和未来沿海环境变化的证据基础，以及对社区的相关风险，同时还需要法律的和政策框架，可持续的融资，政府和社区的支持，以确定和实施农村沿海适应选择。在苏格兰的绝大多数海岸是农村的特点，但在可到达和偏远农村之间存在重要区别，值得注意的是，当前和未来的侵蚀和洪水使苏格兰所有沿海单元的相关资产处于危险之中（Hansom等人，2017年）。自2016年以来，苏格兰政府的动态海岸项目[www.dynamiccoast.com]已经改变了苏格兰过去，最近和预期的海岸变化的证据基础，并预计在2020/1冬季进一步增强。虽然这重新激起了人们对海岸线管理计划等有针对性的沿海规划工具的兴趣，但城乡差距依然存在，使得非城市海岸在监测、详细的规划政策和专门的资金机制方面资源严重不足，无法提高抵御能力和实施沿海适应行动。因此，迫切需要在这一领域开展研究，以确定需要适应的农村地区，可以使用的一套国家统计局，以及可以更好地支持国家统计局实施的政策、融资和社会推动因素。最近宣布的前所未有的苏格兰政府为沿海适应提供约1200万英镑的资金，这意味着这项研究项目非常及时，将直接支持积极适应农村沿海气候变化（布朗等人，2017年）。

Restoring natural coastal systems is increasingly viewed as an effective strategy toadapt and enhance resilience to the adverse effects of climate change in coastalareas, which are projected to experience severe impacts due to increased exposureto coastal flooding and erosion hazards under rising sea levels (IPCC, 2019).Growing numbers of approaches to restore coastal dynamics by working withnatural processes to manage vulnerable coastal areas, including beachnourishment, dune rebuilding, wetland restoration and managed retreat, haveemerged as key nature-based solutions (NBS) in the past decade (e.g. Temmermanet al., 2013). In many cases, these approaches have been implemented asdemonstration projects in protected areas, in estuaries or fronting urban, highdensitysettlements (Bridges et al., 2018). However, often remote and sparselypopulated rural areas can still have surprisingly relevant levels of coastaloccupation, from buildings, infrastructure, cultural heritage and resources thatconnect these communities and sustain rural livelihoods. As such, robustadaptation approaches that are specifically suited to the challenges of rural coastalareas need to be urgently considered, embedding interrelated aspects such as theevidence-base on coastal environmental change, now and in the future, andassociated risks to communities, coupled with the legal and policy frameworks,sustainable financing, government and community support necessary to identifyand implement rural coastal adaptation options.In Scotland the vast majority of the coast is characterized as rural, but withimportant distinctions between accessible and remote rural and, notably, withpresent and future erosion and flooding placing relevant assets at risk across allcoastal cells in Scotland (Hansom et al., 2017). Since 2016 the ScottishGovernment's Dynamic Coast project [www.dynamiccoast.com] has transformedthe evidence base of past, recent and anticipated coastal change across Scotlandand further enhancements expect in winter 2020/1. Whilst this is rekindling interestin targeted coastal planning instruments such as Shoreline Management Plans, anurban-rural divide remains, leaving non-urban shores disproportionately underresourcedin monitoring, detailed planning policies and dedicated fundingmechanisms to increase resilience and implement coastal adaptation actions.Research in this area is thus urgently needed, to identify the rural areas requiringadaptation, the suite of NBS that can be used and the policy, financing and socialenablers that can better support NBS implementation. The recently announced andunprecedented provision of ~£12m of Scottish Government funding for coastaladaptation, means that this research project is extremely timely and would directlysupport proactive adaptation to rural coastal climate change (Brown et al., 2017).