UC Santa Cruz

As sea levels rise, shorelines change, and coastal hazards intensify, the need for sustainable and holistic coastal adaptation is paramount. However, successful implementation of strategies that avoid maladaptation and provide the most positive outcomes—ecologically, socially, and economically—is rare. In the US, coastal adaptation efforts are often short-term and piecemeal. Shoreline armoring, despite its negative ecological impacts, is still the most popular coastal adaptation strategy, and if shoreline armoring continues at its current rate, nearly one-third of the contiguous US coastline will be armored by 2100. Meanwhile, despite growing evidence for the effectiveness of nature-based solutions, uptake has remained surprisingly limited. Using the methodologies of systematic literature review, focus group, and interview, this dissertation investigates coastal hazards through an environmental justice lens, what coastal stakeholders need to make scientifically informed decisions, what science agencies need to provide effective decision support, and the barriers to coastal adaptation options that are long-term, large-scale, and nature-based. This research finds that the causes of maladaptation are often structural and go beyond the need for more accessible and actionable science. Maintaining the status quo, and continuing our current path, will lead to myriad negative consequences, some of which will be worse than the original problem. In each chapter, I recommend a version of the following reflection: As our coastal ecosystems undergo irreversible ecological transformation, so should our social systems.