ABSTRACT
Abstract: A deliberative approach to coastal governance is needed to navigate the stormy seas of the Anthropocene. Coasts are the frontline of the global struggle for sustainability and the primary arena for learning how to adapt to the super-wicked problem of climate change. Coastal communities need to build layers of resilience in the face of waves of adversity due to unsustainable practices that are compounded by climate change impacts. Well-intentioned but modest adaptation measures to maintain the status quo can reduce climate risks and even mitigate some climate impacts in the short term. However, the root causes and drivers of unsustainable coastal development, institutional inertia, and path-dependent maladaptation need to be confronted. Emerging adaptation efforts, however, reveal persistent barriers for translating theory into practice. How might adaptation barriers be overcome? Much can be learned from decades of coastal management experience. This experience demonstrates that business as usual is untenable. Sustainable coastal development is widely espoused but elusive in practice. To break the impasse, new modalities of innovative transitional and even transformative coastal governance need to be envisioned and institutionalized, with climate change adaptation an integral part thereof. Deliberative coastal governance provides a foundation for managing climate risk at the coast, charting adaptive pathways, and building resilience in the face of the contestation, complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and surprise that characterize life on the frontline in the Anthropocene.
