Keeping with precarity: Engaging with Europe’s fastest eroding coastline through time-specific performance

The livelihoods of coastal people are at risk as shoreline migration is accelerated by climate change. To safeguard these communities and maintain their economy, it is imperative to strengthen resilience via adaptive strategies. Therefore, this study aims to estimate the rates and impacts of physical shoreline migration over the past 9,000 years using geospatial analysis and focus on understanding the livelihood resilience of coastal at-risk communities using in-depth interviews with environmental experts. The dynamic system of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna is highly complex and causes continuous shoreline migration. Historical data and more recent satellite remote sensing imagery analysis identified that the shrinking of the delta system has resulted from the migration of the shorelines at the mouth of the river system. Since 5,000 BP, it has been expanding towards the Bay of Bengal – meaning land gains at the coast. Land gain provides an opportunity for the extension of coastal communities but also increases their vulnerability to natural hazards. Moreover, by 2050, the salinity isoline with a 5-ppt is expected to shift inland by ⁓8 km in the south-east (Bhola-Patuakhali) and ⁓24 km in the southwest (Khulna-Satkhira) region. The in-depth interviews reveal several adaptive practices to effectively deal with the situation, including community knowledge, stakeholder engagement, local-led adaptation, and most importantly, temporal migration. The findings also highlighted the urgent need for an adaptation plan for the sustainability and resilience of coastal communities, considering indigenous knowledge with local cultural orientation and incorporation of scientific standards.

The resilience of coastal communities in the Global South, including in Southeast Asia, in facing the impacts of climate change requires a responsive and adaptive environmental legal framework. Local wisdom serves as a strategic element in safeguarding the rights of coastal communities and enhancing their capacity to withstand environmental threats. This study examines how integrating local wisdom into environmental law can contribute to strengthening coastal climate resilience, particularly within the context of Indonesia and comparable jurisdictions in Asia. Employing normative legal research, this study adopts conceptual, legislative, and comparative approaches to highlight best practices and theoretical reflections. The findings demonstrate that policies recognizing and incorporating local knowledge into environmental law hold significant potential to support effective adaptation and mitigation efforts in coastal areas. Comparative analysis of policies across different countries in the region shows that embracing local wisdom can foster a more context-sensitive and sustainable legal framework. Accordingly, this study proposes that legal frameworks in developing countries should integrate local wisdom as an integral element of environmental law reform to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities. The implications suggest that such integration is not only relevant for climate change adaptation but also for building more responsive, participatory, and effective environmental governance in the developing world.

Coastal communities face unique challenges in maintaining continuous service from critical infrastructure. This research advances capabilities for evaluating the impact of using wave energy to desalinate water on the resilience of coastal communities. The study focuses on the feasibility of using wave energy conversion to provide drinking water to communities in need and applying resilience metrics to quantify its impact on the community. To assess the feasibility of wave-powered desalination, this research couples the open-source software Wave Energy Converter SIMulator (WEC-Sim) and Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR). This research explores variations in both the wave resource (location, seasonality, and duration) and the ability to maintain drinking water service during a disruption scenario by applying the simulation framework to three case studies, which are based on communities in Puerto Rico. The simulation framework provides a contextualized assessment of the ability of wave-powered desalination to improve the resilience of coastal communities, which can serve as a methodology for future studies seeking the integration of wave-powered desalination with water distribution systems.

Chapter 7 - Vulnerable countries, resilient communities: climate change governance in the coastal communities in Indonesia

Enhancing the Resilience of Coastal Communities

The biophysical and socioeconomic conditions in the coastal zone of the Yap Islands is highly vulnerable to climate-related changes in precipitation, sea level, storm surges, coastal erosion, and salinity. The climatic changes are affecting every aspect in the lives of coastal communities due to the small size of the islands and atolls, their low elevation, and extensive coastal areas. Climate risks are further amplified by the regional El Nino Southern Oscillation phenomena that threaten the food and water security of island communities. Further changes are projected to manifest in the coming decades because of increased temperature, decreased rainfall, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification. Recurrences of disasters and crises threaten food security through impacts on traditional agriculture, causing the forced migration of coastal communities to highlands in search of better living conditions. As many of the projected impacts are now unavoidable, implementing some degree of adaptation is essential to enhance food security, strengthen livelihoods, and increase the resilience of coastal communities to future climate risks. This paper highlights the outcomes of an ongoing project on ‘Climate Adaptive Agriculture and Resilience,’ and presents a three-pronged adaptation model to enhance the adaptive capacity and climate resilience of coastal communities in Yap. The potential of sustainable soil management practices, water conservation and management, and mosaic restoration activities in enhancing the livelihood opportunities of displaced coastal communities is highlighted. Through this adaptation model, coastal communities can moderate the harm of current and future climate risks and take advantage of new opportunities.

The concept of community resilience has received substantial attention in the research literature, with coastal areas being a major focus. However, within the body of theoretical and empirical research on coastal community resilience, rural communities and small towns facing environmental stressors have received less attention. Nonurban coastal communities struggle with unique environmental and socioeconomic challenges. We sought to better understand resilience to environmental stressors in nonurban communities in coastal areas. We used a qualitative comparative case approach to examine how six nonurban coastal communities in Oregon responded to environmental stressors and what factors influenced their ability to be resilient. We found that the communities struggled with compounding challenges—environmental and social—and employed a variety of responses to overcome the challenges and reduce the impacts. The factors that we found to be important to their resilience were: the presence of foundational assets; community livability; the capacity for effective action; community cohesion, engagement, and support; and the salience of external stressors relative to internal challenges. Our findings confirm the applicability of several conceptual frameworks of community resilience in nonurban coastal contexts where communities are experiencing environmental change.

For countries like Vanuatu, climate change is the most significant single threat to sustainable development, in particular due to the large proportion of the population living in coastal communities. Additionally Vanuatu is the world’s most at-risk country for natural hazards mainly affecting coastal communities (Birkmann and Welle in The world risk index, 2015). One of the key barriers to improving Pacific Island Countries’ resilience to climate change impacts is the lack of local and regional capacity and expertise resulting from the absence of sustainable accredited and quality assured formal training programs in climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk management (DRM) (Jordon et al. in Climate change policy in the European Union: confronting the dilemmas of adaptation and mitigation. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2010; Martin et al. in Training needs and gap analysis. Suva, Fiji, 2015). The European Union funded PacTVET project has partnered with The Pacific Community (SPC) and the German aid agency (GIZ) Coping with Climate Change in the Pacific Region (CCCPIR) programme to support the delivery of the first accredited TVET certificate in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (CCDRR) in the Pacific Islands region. This TVET qualification provides outcomes based learning specifically focused on coastal communities through practical activities and field work involving vulnerable coastal areas throughout the provinces of Vanuatu. The delivery of the CCDRR course is being led by the Vanuatu government through the Vanuatu Institute of Technology and is leading regional and global developments in formal accredited TVET training for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Effective management of urban coastlines and port areas relies heavily on accurate prediction and understanding of local coastal processes, particularly in regions where nearshore morphology and bathymetry have a significant influence on ocean circulation and wave transformation. This work presents a state-of-the-art three-dimensional modelling tool designed to improve the prediction of ocean and wave conditions in the Barcelona coastal zone. The tool uses the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport Modelling System (COAWST) [1], which uses the Model Coupling Toolkit to synchronise the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model. By exchanging relevant predictor variables between the models, the system more accurately captures wave-current interactions, a key mechanism governing nearshore dynamics [2].A nested grid strategy supports the model framework, with horizontal resolutions ranging from 350 m in the outer domain to 70 m and then 14 m in progressively refined subdomains covering the Port of Barcelona and adjacent beaches. This nesting approach enables fine-scale predictions of hydrodynamic and wave processes, including spatial variations in wave height, period and direction. Bathymetric inputs are derived from EMODnet [3] and improved with site-specific high-resolution datasets, while boundary conditions are driven by Copernicus Marine Service data [4].Rigorous validation against in-situ observations - in particular during the severe storm Celia in March 2022 - demonstrates the system's ability to provide reliable predictions of coastal hydrodynamics. By integrating wave-current processes, the model provides valuable insights for day-to-day coastal operations, long-term resource management and assessment of climate-related hazards.Planned future work includes the assimilation of improved ocean observations and the refinement of atmospheric forcing to improve model accuracy and predictive capability. Ultimately, these efforts will inform sustainable management strategies, promote the resilience of coastal communities and support the harmonious coexistence of human activities with marine and coastal ecosystems along the Barcelona coast. This research will provide key insights for policy makers and stakeholders, promoting the sustainable integration of human activities with marine ecosystems and increasing the resilience of Barcelona's coastal communities through accurate, predictive data. Funding: This research is supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action, under Grant Agreement No. 101037097 for the REST-COAST project.Acknowledgments: This research is supported by the ECCO_TS project, financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (contract no. PID2023-152363OB-I00). As a group, we would like to thank the  Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Convocatòria d'ajuts a  Grups de Recerca de  Catalunya (SGR-Cat 2021) 2021SGR00600.

“Resilience” has become a central yet inconsistently defined concept in the discourse around coastal hazard planning. Although widely invoked by planners, researchers, and funding agencies, there is no consensus on what makes a coastal community “resilient.” To investigate how the term is understood in practice, we surveyed 52 individuals actively involved in coastal management, including engineers, geologists, attorneys, property owners, coastal agency managers, and policy-makers. Respondents were asked to define a resilient coastal community, to identify a reasonable planning horizon for resilience, and to share any examples of resilient coastal communities. Ten distinct definitions emerged, covering a spectrum that ranges from recovering after disasters to resisting their effects to continuously adapting over time. In the discussion, we group responses into three broad categories of resilience, including recovery, absorption, and adaptation, to help coastal decision-makers better under- stand the range of “resilience” definitions currently in use. These findings highlight the need for shared understanding and flexible approaches as coastal communities face the combined effects of accelerating short-term and long-term coastal hazards.

Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care was launched in 2007. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The fields of supportive and palliative care are divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS David C. CurrowDavid C. CurrowProfessor David C. Currow is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Cancer Institute, New South Wales, Australia and Chief Cancer Officer for this state. He has previously had the role of foundation chief executive officer of Cancer Australia, the Australian government's national cancer control agency. He continues to hold the appointment of Professor of Palliative and Supportive Services at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. David initially trained as a physician in internal medicine with sub-speciality training in palliative medicine. At the same time, he completed a Master of Public Health exploring changes in the reported incidence of cancer unknown primary in New South Wales over a 25 year time period. Former roles include foundation director of the Nepean Cancer Care Centre, Sydney, Australia and area director of Palliative Services Wentworth Area Health Service, Sydney, Australia. Since 2000 he has had the Chair of Palliative and Supportive Services at Flinders University where there are more than 200 distance students studying at a post-graduate level around the world from a variety of discipline backgrounds. He has published widely in palliative care journals and general medical literature. Among other projects, he is Co-Chief Investigator on an anthology of evidence for palliative care practice and service delivery – www.caresearch.com.au. Other research interests include the symptomatic management of dyspnoea, improving population based planning for people with life limiting illnesses and improving the evidence base around which clinical decisions are made in palliative care. David holds grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Institutes of Health (USA) and the Cancer Councils in Australia. He was on the Board of the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care and been on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) taskforce on palliative care education. He is a former president of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia and a former president of Palliative Care Australia, the peak body for palliative care in the country. He is a senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Miriam J. JohnsonMiriam J. JohnsonMiriam J. Johnson MD; FRCP; MRCP; MBChB(hons) is Professor of Palliative Medicine at the Hull York Medical School, United Kingdon, and is co-director of the Supportive care, Early Diagnosis, Advanced disease (SEDA) research group at the University of Hull, United Kingdom. Her research interests include the palliation of refractory breathlessness, palliative care for patients with advanced heart disease and venous thromboembolism in advanced disease. SEDA uses a variety of study designs and methodologies (clinical trials, qualitative studies, observational studies, secondary data analysis and evidence synthesis). Miriam holds grants from a variety of funders (NIHR, BHF, Marie Curie/CRUK, Dunhill Medical Trust) and has published widely in her field. She is a member of the NCRI Supportive and Palliative Care Clinical Studies Group, and Deputy Director of the Academic Clinical Training Programme (East Yorkshire). In conjunction with the local cardiologists, she has developed one of the first joint services for heart patients in the UK at St. Catherine's Hospice in Scarborough, United Kingdom, and has edited two of the first books on integrative palliative care for people with heart failure. Fred SaadFred SaadFred Saad MD FRCS, is Professor and Chief of Urology and Director of G-U Oncology at the University of Montreal Hospital Centers (CHUM), Canada. He holds the U of M Endowed Chair in Prostate Cancer Research and is Director of the molecular oncology research lab in Prostate Cancer. He is also Director of clinical cancer research at the CHUM research center (CRCHUM), Canada. Dr Saad is Lead Investigator of the Canadian Prostate Cancer Biomarker Network funded by the Terry Fox Institutes and is a principal investigator with the Movember bio-marker initiatives in prostate cancer. Between 2007–2013 he served as Chair of the National Cancer Institute of Canada G-U Group and the Canadian Urologic Oncology Group. He has published over 300 articles in several prestigious journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JCO and JNCI. He sits on 7 editorial boards and is a reviewer for over 30 scientific journals. He is an author on over 800 scientific abstracts, 5 books and over 30 book chapters. Dr Saad's research interests include molecular prognostic markers, mechanisms of progression and new therapeutics in prostate cancer. He has over 40 clinical and basic research projects ongoing. To date he has received over 20 million dollars in research grants. Irene YingIrene YingDr Ying is a palliative care physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She obtained a Bachelors of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto before earning her medical degree, completing her Family Medicine residency, and her fellowship in Palliative Care at the University of Toronto. Dr Ying initially practiced inner city primary care and home-based palliative care. The experiences and ethical challenges she faced led her to complete a Master of Health Sciences degree in Bioethics at the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto. Dr Ying has since published in peer-reviewed journals on ethical issues pertaining to Dialysis in Advanced Dementia and Artificial Hydration and Nutrition. Her main areas of academic interest include Shared-Decision Making, End-of-Life Care in Long-Term Care Homes, and Advance Care Planning. Sally BeanSally BeanSally Bean is the Director of the Ethics Centre & Policy Advisor at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a member of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, an Adjunct Lecturer in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, and an Associate Member of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto. Sally is the co-chair of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Implementation Task Force. Her research areas of academic interest pertain largely to health institution and health system ethics with an emphasis on health law and policy.

The resilience of coastal communities becomes a critical issue of the social‐ecological system adapting to impacts from hazards on coastal well‐being. This paper formulates a framework integrating typhoon destructive potential and social‐ecological system from a perspective of coastal resilience. Typhoon destructive potential is interpreted using the Power Dissipation Index as a metric. We use the distributional models in geographic information systems to identify the spatial hotspots of high Power Dissipation Index along the coast of Mainland China. Furthermore, we evaluate the community resilience in all identified hotspots with place‐based indicators within five potential dimensions (Social, Ecological, Institutional, Economic, and Safety). Though the results show no significant long‐term trends in the typhoon destructive potential, statistically significant interdecadal variations are identified in different hotspots during 1949–2014. The resilience assessment results reveal that ecological (predisaster defense) and safety resilience (postdisaster support) are critical issues in achieving coastal community resilience. We argue that improving the ecological stewardship (having great predisaster defense) and adopting integrated approaches contribute to resilience enhancement, providing opportunities to support all the dimensions of community resilience via improving the social‐economic‐ecological nexus. The integration of typhoon destructive potential and social‐ecological system helps to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 13 through risk‐informed decision‐making. The results from this study have important policy implications for local‐scale planning incorporating place‐based indicators.

Background: Coastal areas are dynamic and sensitive socio-ecological systems, home to over 40% of the world’s population. Over the past century, they have experienced major socio-economic and environmental changes due to urbanization, industrialization, and ecosystem degradation. Coastal communities, especially those dependent on small-scale fisheries, face multiple challenges from climate change, declining biodiversity, and market pressures. Their ability to cope and adapt depends not only on natural resources but also on social and economic capital. However, the interaction between these two types of capital remains poorly understood, especially in different global contexts. Methods: This study conducted a scoping review of 53 scholarly articles published between 2019 and 2025. Using the three Resilience Capitals framework (C1, C2, C3), the review synthesized evidence on how social and economic capital interact to shape the resilience of coastal communities in both the Global South and Global North. Findings: The synthesis confirms that coastal community resilience is fundamentally a product of a complex, mutually reinforcing interaction where social capital (e.g., trust, networks, collective action) provides the foundation for information exchange and solidarity, while economic capital (e.g., assets, financial capacity) offers the material means for adaptation and recovery. Strong social capital amplifies the utility and reaches of limited economic resources, enhancing adaptive capacity, whereas a deficiency in either capital exacerbates vulnerability. Conclusion: Sustainable coastal development must prioritize the integrated strengthening of both social and economic capital as the foundational core of effective resilience policies. Novelty/Originality of this article: This study offers a comprehensive synthesis of the reciprocal causality between social and economic capitals, providing an evidence-based roadmap for integrated policy interventions, particularly relevant for vulnerable populations in the Global South.

Community resilience and resource management are closely related, particularly when it comes to preserving social, economic, and environmental well-being in small islands. Policies and regulations that promote sustainable resource management also contribute to the development of more resilient communities. Identifying the indicators also rely on the context of the resilience measured. The purpose of this study is to measuring Fishermen's Resilience in a Policy Framework. Resilience was calculated by comparing scores obtained with maximum scores of resilience index. For data collection, survey method was conducted in Karimunjawa Islands, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The five dimensions of resilience used are social, economic, institutional, infrastructure, and resource. The results presented two categories of resilience namely sufficiently resilient and resilient. Fishers in the category of resilient are fishers in Karimunjawa, Kemujan, and Parang. Fishers in Nyamuk Island are in the category of sufficiently resilient. To enhance the resilience of small-scale fishermen on small islands, the following strategies are recommended: diversify livelihoods, strengthen social protection systems, optimize family and social networks, adapt fishing techniques, strengthen capacity and knowledge, and improve market access and supply chains. This, in turn, will ensure more sustainable fisheries and stronger, more resilient coastal communities in the long term.

An overview of the recently financed Water4All Joint Transnational Call 2023 project "Ecosystem services to enhance the resilience of coastal regions and communities to flood risks in a catchment to sea perspective