Enhancing the Acceptability of Buyouts for Climate Change Adaptation: Exploring a Social License Approach for Erie Shore Drive, Ontario

Abstract

Managed retreat is increasingly recognized as a permanent, cost-effective solution to address flooding and erosion. While managed retreat takes many forms, buyouts are a core strategy for reducing risk. Unfortunately, buyouts are also often controversial. In Canada especially, they are reactionary, have low uptake, and may suffer from a lack of trust between stakeholders. As a result, a growing body of literature seeks to understand factors which influence residents’ willingness to participate in buyout programs. Yet, there are few practical strategies which buyout coordinators can use to improve public perception or participation rates. This paper applies the concept of social license, or the ongoing public approval of a project, to identify strategies which may assist coordinators in improving buyout acceptance. Factors which impact social acceptance were drawn from managed retreat and coastal adaptation literature, and combined with key informant interviews from Erie Shore Drive, a particularly flood-prone region of Chatham-Kent, Ontario. The results indicate that proactive and transparent engagement, attention to case-specific context, identification of co-benefits and clear rationale for decision making create a transparent and accountable process in which the benefits and costs of buyouts are better understood by the community. Although no buyout has yet occurred in Chatham-Kent, these results re-emphasize the importance of proactive and meaningful engagement with the public during conceptual development, design and implementation of coastal adaptation projects. Furthermore, these results indicate a need for longer planning horizons, continued hazard identification and acknowledgement of climate change in Ontario’s provincial planning guidance.