ABSTRACT
Development of coastal areas has created conditions of coastal “squeeze”, with ecosystems and intensive human land uses competing for land resources in the face of massive global environmental change. This intensive pressure has already resulted in dramatic human influenced environmental disasters with homes destroyed through storm surges and areal flooding, alongside the collapse of local mangrove and wetland systems. This chapter adopts scenario-based design approaches to examine the possibility of win-win outcomes for both human-dominated and more natural systems. We combine a case study methodology from Adelaide (Australia) with scenario-based approaches that integrates both scientific and design-based ways of thinking. Similar to all of Australia’s and many global major cities, Adelaide is a coastal city with extensive development of coastal landscapes and threatened marine and estuarine environments. Our approach utilizes retreat, defense and adaptation strategies to prioritize either specific land uses or a more complex mix of land uses. The result of such testing demonstrates that identifying win-win outcomes is possible. Such scenario-based design is essential to transform urban-environmental governance and planning, which generally does not acknowledge the scale or urgency of Australia’s current coastal crises and faces political challenges.
