A comparative assessment of accommodation strategies based on elevated buildings for coastal adaptation

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Elevating parts or the entirety of the structure of buildings in exposed coastal areas can be an effective way of managing the growing risks associated with climate change and sea level rise. While these accommodation measures are well known, there is little to no research on their role in coastal adaptation policy in Europe or on accommodation taking place at all. A systematic review of grey literature was carried out in metropolitan France, the UK and Ireland to assess the current state of structural accommodation. The analysis shows that although measures such as the raising of floor levels of new developments are common practice as part of property-level resilience and flood risk management on the coasts of the three studied countries, accommodation remains driven by local spatial planning and poorly integrated in overarching adaptation policies. Accommodation is found to be unevenly distributed along the assessed coasts and in many locations is happening in protected or sheltered locations to manage residual risk. Comparisons with the experience from the US – where elevated buildings have been an established strategy for over 50 years – suggest that accommodation could be enhanced by providing guidelines that better account for coastal processes such as the impacts of waves, as well as by promoting financial incentives through subsidies or insurance schemes. National coastal adaptation policies are rapidly evolving in Europe and could benefit from a better understanding of the advantages and limitations of accommodation by elevating buildings.