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Retreat or Rebuild: Exploring Geographic Retreat in Humanitarian Practices in Coastal Communities

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Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Communities

Part of the book series: Climate Change Management ((CCM))

Abstract

This chapter identifies an emerging discourse among humanitarian actors with regard to the planning and design of post-disaster geographic retreat of coastal communities. This chapter attempts to synthesize transdisciplinary knowledge in geography, landscape ecology and climate adaptation in order to offer insight into the unrecognized factors shaping the planning and design of the environments and landscapes of coastal retreat. This chapter evaluates the proposition that managing the cultural, environmental and economic byproducts of the former inhabited coastal geography are central to transformative adaptation. Particularly in light of sea level rise, autonomous landscape processes are central to these transformations. Beyond mere relocation, this chapter seeks to expand the definition of coastal retreat by examining the consequences and implications of existing frames defined by disaster resilience and housing, land and property issues. This chapter highlights two external case studies from Japan and the Philippines that provide qualitative evidence in an affirmation of the underlying theoretical proposition.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is the globally designated Focal Point Agency for Housing, Land and Property (HLP) within the humanitarian coordination system. The HLP Area of Responsibility (AoR) was established in 2007. Urban resilience planning has largely been defined by the initiatives of the Rockefeller Foundation, as a means to help cities become more adaptable to physical, social and economic shocks. The term is seeing increased used across both sectors with little consistency.

  2. 2.

    For example, recent notable failures of protective infrastructure include power outages post-Sandy (New York City, 2012); levees post-Katrina (New Orleans, 2005); pump systems in monsoon season (Bangkok, 2011); and, evacuation highway collapse (Haiti, 2010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Rosetta S. Elkin & Jesse M. Keenan

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  1. Rosetta S. Elkin
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  2. Jesse M. Keenan
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Correspondence to Jesse M. Keenan .

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  1. Faculty of Life Science, HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

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Elkin, R.S., Keenan, J.M. (2018). Retreat or Rebuild: Exploring Geographic Retreat in Humanitarian Practices in Coastal Communities. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Communities. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70703-7_8

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