Community Acceptance of Nature-based Solutions for Coastal Flood Risk Management - Survey and Focus Group Data, 2022-2023

Apine, Elina and Stojanovic, Timothy (2025). Community Acceptance of Nature-based Solutions for Coastal Flood Risk Management - Survey and Focus Group Data, 2022-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-858015

Sea and society interact most strongly at the coast where communities both benefit from and are threatened by the marine environment. Coastal flooding was the second highest risk after pandemic flu on the UK government's risk register in 2017. Over 1.8 million homes are at risk of coastal flooding and erosion in England alone. Extreme events already have very significant impacts at the coast, with the damage due to coastal flooding during the winter 2013/14 in excess of £500 million, and direct economic impacts exceeding £260 million per year on average. Coastal hazards will be increasing over the next century primarily driven by unavoidable sea level rise. At the same time, the UK is committed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. It is therefore essential to ensure that UK coasts are managed so that coastal protection is resilient to future climate and the net zero ambition is achieved. Protecting the coast by maintaining hard 'grey' defences in all locations currently planned is unlikely to be cost-effective. Sustainable coastal management and adaptation will therefore require a broader range of actions, and greater use of softer 'green' solutions that work with nature, are multifunctional, and can deliver additional benefits.

Examples already exist and include managed realignment, restoration of coastal habitats, and sand mega-nourishments. However, the uptake of green solutions remains patchy. According to the Committee on Climate Change, the uptake of managed realignment is five times too slow to meet the stated 2030 target. Reasons are complex and span the whole human-environment system. Nature-based solutions often lack support from public opinion and meet social resistance. Despite removing long-term commitment to hard defences, the economic justification for green approaches remains uncertain due to high upfront costs, difficulty in valuing the multiple co-benefits offered, and uncertainties inherent to future environmental and socio-economic projections. The frameworks used to support present day coastal management and policy making (e.g. Shoreline Management Plans) do not provide comprehensive and consistent approaches to resolve these issues. Consequences are that the effectiveness of these policy approaches is reduced. Delivering sustainable management of UK coasts will therefore require new frameworks that embrace the whole complex human-environment system and provide thorough scientific underpinning to determine how different value systems interact with decision making, how climate change will impact coastal ecosystem services, and how decision support tools can combine multiple uncertainties.

Co-Opt will deliver a new integrated and interdisciplinary system-based framework that will effectively support the required transition from hard 'grey' defences to softer 'green' solutions in coastal and shoreline management. This framework will combine for the first time a conceptual representation of the complex coastal socio-ecological system, quantitative valuation of coastal ecosystem services under a changing climate, and the characterisation of how social perceptions and values influence both previous elements. Our new framework will be demonstrated for four case studies in the UK in collaboration with national, regional, and local stakeholders. This will provide a scalable and adaptive solution to support coastal management and policy development. Co-Opt has been co-designed with project partners essential to the implementation and delivery of coastal and shoreline management (e.g. Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot, coastal groups) and will address their specific needs including development of thorough cost-benefit analyses and recommendations for action plans when preferred policy changes. Co-Opt will further benefit the broad coastal science base by supporting more integrated and interdisciplinary characterisation of the complex coastal human-environment system.

Data description (abstract)

This study aimed to understand what factors influence community acceptance of nature-based solutions (NbS) for coastal flood risk management. Coastal communities are already experiencing the impacts of sea level rise and more frequent storm events on property, infrastructure and livelihoods and accelerated coastal erosion. Various adaptation approaches exist, varying from hard engineering solutions to NbS, but whether these strategies are implemented often depends on social acceptance by local communities. This study is part of a large interdisciplinary NERC-ESRC funded project Resilient Coasts: Optimising Co-Benefit Solutions (Co-Opt) 2021-2025.

To pinpoint what influences community acceptance of NbS for flood risk management in the UK, we employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design. We also used a case study approach focusing on four sites in the UK - St Andrews (Scotland), Airth (Scotland), Hesketh Bank (England), and Pensarn (Wales). The sites were selected to demonstrate a range of socio-demographic characteristics and baseline conditions, with a selection of coastal management solutions varying from “grey” to “green” that are already in place or could be implemented in the future.

Firstly, we operationalised a questionnaire survey to identify values, norms and perceived trust that influence social acceptability in each case study site. The survey respondents were randomly selected from AddressBase Core product by the Ordnance Survey for each case study site and conducted from May 2022 to October 2023. A postcard introducing the survey with a QR code and a link to a Qualtrics online survey was sent first, followed by a printed copy with a pre-paid envelope two weeks later. A final reminder postcard was with a QR code and link to a Qualtrics online survey was sent 2-4 weeks later. In total 328 complete and valid responses were received (13.40% response rate).

Secondly, focus group discussions were conducted to elaborate on the initial quantitative findings. In total, seven focus groups were hosted in the case study sites one in St Andrews and two in the rest of the three sites Airth, Hesketh Bank and Pensarn. Participants included interested and/or affected groups such as landowners, farmers, business owners, local councillors and representatives from local risk management authorities and environmental organisations.
The mixed methods approach worked via quantitative data suggesting the strength and patterns of relationships, and qualitative data suggesting the nature and mechanisms of causal relationships.

The results show that community acceptance is place-based and is influenced by the context, with certain factors being site specific. The study highlights the complexity of community acceptance of NbS for coastal flood risk management, indicating that local perceptions are influenced by a combination individual factors such as trust; the characteristics of schemes; and they ways in which governance systems interact with local communities.

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