Creating adaptive social-ecological fit: the role of regional actors in the governance of Sea-level Rise Adaptation in San Francisco Bay

TY - JOUR

T1 - Creating adaptive social-ecological fit: the role of regional actors in the governance of Sea-level Rise Adaptation in San Francisco Bay

AU - Vantaggiato, Francesca Pia

AU - Lubell, Mark

AU - Hummel, Michelle

AU - Chow, Aaron CH

AU - Siwe, Alain Tcheukam

N1 - Funding Information: Funding was supported by the National Science Foundation #1541056. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)

PY - 2023/5/10

Y1 - 2023/5/10

N2 - Sea level rise is one of the most pressing climate adaptation issues around the world. Often, coastal communities are interdependent in their exposure to sea level rise – if one builds a seawall, it will push water to another – and would benefit from a coordinated adaptive response. The literature on social-ecological systems (SES) calls for actors placed at higher levels of governance (e.g. regional government in a metropolitan area) to improve coordination between local managers by serving as brokers. However, we lack empirical insight on how higher-level actors might improve coordination in practice, and theoretical development on the implications of their intermediation. To address these gaps, we study the case of adaptation to sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area. We build a social-ecological network of social actors and shoreline segments using original survey data and simulated scenarios of tidal and traffic interdependencies between shoreline segments. We perform a frequency analysis of network motifs that operationalize social-ecological ‘fit’ in the context of the Bay Area. We find that regional actors and non-governmental organizations increase social-ecological fit by providing intermediation between actors who work on different shoreline segments, whether interdependent or not. This shows that these actors provide adaptive social-ecological fit, future-proofing the Bay Area to current and future climate adaptation challenges.

AB - Sea level rise is one of the most pressing climate adaptation issues around the world. Often, coastal communities are interdependent in their exposure to sea level rise – if one builds a seawall, it will push water to another – and would benefit from a coordinated adaptive response. The literature on social-ecological systems (SES) calls for actors placed at higher levels of governance (e.g. regional government in a metropolitan area) to improve coordination between local managers by serving as brokers. However, we lack empirical insight on how higher-level actors might improve coordination in practice, and theoretical development on the implications of their intermediation. To address these gaps, we study the case of adaptation to sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area. We build a social-ecological network of social actors and shoreline segments using original survey data and simulated scenarios of tidal and traffic interdependencies between shoreline segments. We perform a frequency analysis of network motifs that operationalize social-ecological ‘fit’ in the context of the Bay Area. We find that regional actors and non-governmental organizations increase social-ecological fit by providing intermediation between actors who work on different shoreline segments, whether interdependent or not. This shows that these actors provide adaptive social-ecological fit, future-proofing the Bay Area to current and future climate adaptation challenges.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149768992&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102654

DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102654

M3 - Article

SN - 0959-3780

VL - 80

JO - Global Environmental Change

JF - Global Environmental Change

M1 - 102654

ER -