Being an island nation, the UK faces substantial long-term coastal challenges including flooding and coastal erosion. Approximately 17% of the total UK population live in coastal communities. The coastal communities are at the frontier of the UK’s economic, social and environmental challenges.
While marine setting provides a great many health aiding benefits as well for people, coastal communities face a number of unique macro environmental long-term challenges and are directly affected by them. For instance, marine pollution, coastal erosion, seal-level rise and extreme weather events affect this deeply marine embedded communities more than others.[i] Further, these communities face exceptional socio-demographic challenges. For example, with highly transient and seasonal workforce, greater concentration of older people, and a large percentage of holiday or second homes create a fragile social structure and limited long-term employment opportunities for young people which is further pronounced by inadequate or unaffordable housing and weakening healthcare infrastructure. It is observed that, due to a variety of complex micro and macro challenges outlined above, coastal communities demonstrate limited understanding and engagement with the range of long-term coastal concerns.[ii]
Determining and building resilient coastal communities is utmost important and has been identified as a key challenge by the UK government and global leaders as well.[iii] The UN Sustainable Development Goals also highlight that resilient coastal communities are vital in appropriately responding to climate change and natural disasters (SDG15), sustainability managing marine ecosystem (SDG14).
[i] De Depledge, M. H., Lovell, R., Wheeler, B. W., Morrissey, K. M., White, M., & Fleming, L. E. (2017). Future of the sea: health and wellbeing of coastal communities. Government Office for Science, UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-the-sea-health-and-wellbeing-of-coastal-communities
[ii] Zsamboky, M., Fernández-Bilbao, A., Smith, D., Knight, J., & Allan, J. (2011). Impacts of climate change on disadvantaged UK coastal communities. Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1-63.
[iii] DEFRA (2015). A green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan