The growing cost of climate-driven coastal impacts requires an improved understanding of how coastal populations engage with adaptation decisions. While many studies explore factors driving coastal adaptation, generally, few evaluate how residents consider relationships between in situ, protective adaption vs. retreat from at-risk areas. What is the relationship between residents' exposure, perceptions of climate trends, and concerns about the future? How do these factors influence openness to different adaption strategies? Are these strategies considered to be progressive-where protection is indexed to minor threats and retreat occurs when protection measures fail-or are these dichotomous choices? We apply structural equation modeling to evaluate these decision pathways using a 2017 household survey in North Carolina's (USA) Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula (n = 147). Our results reveal that residents commonly view protection and retreat as mutually exclusive, rather than progressive, methods for reducing risk, and that their preferences are correlated with different understandings of climate threats.
Schwaller, NL; BenDor, TK
Differential residential perspectives on in situ protection and retreat as strategies for climate adaptation
Climatic Change