TY - CHAP
T1 - Limits to coastal adaptation in Samoa
T2 - Insights and experiences
AU - Crichton, Richard
AU - Esteban, Miguel
N1 - Funding Information:
Otherwise, coastal erosion is becoming a common problem for many of Samoa’s coastal communities, leading them to request the national government to provide assistance for the construction of coastal protection in the form of revetments (usually constructed using large rock boulders). To address coastal vulnerabilities, the government developed district Coastal Infrastructure Management (CIM) Plans in 2005 to address community needs under the National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA), funded under the LDC Adaptation funds. Coastal erosion is exacerbated by natural disasters and the development of CIM plans were supposed to address some of these challenges, including support for building some large boulder-stone seawall defences. However, according to the Pacific Food Security Toolkit 2010, the seawalls proposed are not an environmentally sustainable solution to protect sea-level rise and inundation. Constructions of seawall are usually costly and ineffective in the long-term, as well as harmful to the environment and likely to transfer the erosion or flooding problems to a neighbouring area (see for example Takagi et al. 2015, coastal seawalls will be discussed further in the adaptation section).
Funding Information:
There are limits to the effectiveness of the adaptation strategies outlined in the previous section. For example, the village of Vaiala, which is located in the vicinity of the city of Apia, erected a coastal wall and also conducted tree replanting to minimize coastal erosion. The wall suffered much damage during its 30 year lifespan (see Fig. 16.5), until eventually high swells and the impact of Tropical Cyclone Evan in 2012 and high seas and pounding waves in January 2015 destroyed the already decayed wall, eroding much of the soil and threatening the main road (Keresoma 2015). A new replacement wall was erected with funding and support from both the United Nations Development Program and the Government of Samoa, which was completed by end of 2015 (see Fig. 16.6). The new wall, which is larger than the previous, suggests that coastal defences will require constant upgrades and enlargement to deal with future impacts (as explained for example in Yamamoto and Esteban 2014). Newer defences, such as these hard engineering solutions, become progressively more expensive and at some point the cost of adaptation would exceed the benefits received from them, making them unsustainable. This would present a clear economic limit to this form of adaptation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer International Publishing AG.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Small Island States have been identified as some of the planet’s most vulnerable countries, with increases in global atmospheric temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere being predicted to lead to a mass extinction and/or migration of coral species and fisheries resources. Rising ocean surface temperatures and the increasing acidity of the oceans (through absorption of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) will likely cause significant mortality in coral reef systems, which are expected to increase tropical island vulnerability to natural disasters and coastal erosion. Storm surges and sea level rise also affect fresh water supplies and impact coastal communities, cultural heritage and infrastructure. The impact on food security and livelihoods of people in Pacific Islands is likely to be enormous, and SIDS have been encouraged to improve adaptation measures to reduce the environmental and socio-economic impacts caused by natural disasters and climate change. A transformational adaptation approach, as highlighted in the latest IPCC AR5 report, will be essential when addressing vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of Small Island States in the Pacific. On the ground experience highlights a need for a tailored approach when designing disaster risk management strategies to address the impacts of climate change, though current problems highlight the limitations and effectiveness of these adaptation projects. The present chapter will highlight case studies from the Islands of Samoa and current adaptation efforts and their limitations, highlighting the traditional characteristics of such adaptation measures. The overall purpose of this chapter is to facilitate discussion on what can be done to address the identified limitations to the development of Small Island States and outline possible future adaptation strategies.
AB - Small Island States have been identified as some of the planet’s most vulnerable countries, with increases in global atmospheric temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere being predicted to lead to a mass extinction and/or migration of coral species and fisheries resources. Rising ocean surface temperatures and the increasing acidity of the oceans (through absorption of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) will likely cause significant mortality in coral reef systems, which are expected to increase tropical island vulnerability to natural disasters and coastal erosion. Storm surges and sea level rise also affect fresh water supplies and impact coastal communities, cultural heritage and infrastructure. The impact on food security and livelihoods of people in Pacific Islands is likely to be enormous, and SIDS have been encouraged to improve adaptation measures to reduce the environmental and socio-economic impacts caused by natural disasters and climate change. A transformational adaptation approach, as highlighted in the latest IPCC AR5 report, will be essential when addressing vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of Small Island States in the Pacific. On the ground experience highlights a need for a tailored approach when designing disaster risk management strategies to address the impacts of climate change, though current problems highlight the limitations and effectiveness of these adaptation projects. The present chapter will highlight case studies from the Islands of Samoa and current adaptation efforts and their limitations, highlighting the traditional characteristics of such adaptation measures. The overall purpose of this chapter is to facilitate discussion on what can be done to address the identified limitations to the development of Small Island States and outline possible future adaptation strategies.
KW - Climate change adaptation
KW - Coastal defences
KW - Oceans
KW - Reefs
KW - Samoa
KW - Sea level rise
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071505100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071505100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-64599-5_16
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-64599-5_16
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85071505100
T3 - Climate Change Management
SP - 283
EP - 300
BT - Climate Change Management
PB - Springer
ER -
