Sea Level Rise in Europe: Governance context and challenges

Sea level rise (SLR) will affect Europe's coasts over the coming decades and beyond, giving rise to ongoing challenges in governing coastal and marine areas. Progress is being made in adapting to and addressing these challenges at both national and sub-national levels across all major European sea basins. This paper assesses progress in coastal adaptation governance in Europe by, first, characterising the socio-economic and political contexts in European sea basins and then by reviewing coastal-adaptation-relevant policy frameworks in place at regional and national levels within each of these sea basins. The regional frameworks reviewed are derived from regional sea conventions and are assessed for their legal status and their inclusion of SLR information. The national coastal policy frameworks reviewed include national adaptation plans focusing on coastal areas and marine spatial planning instruments for all European member states, as well as public financing arrangements for coastal adaptation, focusing on flood risk reduction measures. Key national policies for coastal adaptation are assessed for which coastal hazards they address, the extent to which they incorporate sea level rise information and their inclusion of SLR-specific adaptation measures. Finally, the paper presents governance challenges that arise due to the complexity of adaptation to SLR, i.e. time horizon and uncertainty, cross-scale and cross-domain coordination, and equity and social vulnerability, and discusses examples illustrating how each of these challenges is being addressed in different European sea basins. The paper finds that for all basins, regional policy frameworks generally do not include specific provisions for SLR or coastal adaptation, while at the national level, significant progress on SLR governance is being made. For all basins except for the Black Sea, all countries have reported observed and future SLR hazards and have adopted adaptation strategies. The inclusion of adaptation measures specific to SLR is less advanced, as most sea basins have at least one country that does not include specific SLR adaptation measures in either their adaptation strategies or their marine spatial plans. Regarding SLR governance challenges, key examples of how these are being addressed include approaches for incorporating flexibility into coastal planning, e.g. dynamic adaptation pathways in the Netherlands or dike crest widening in Germany, as well as co-development of nature-based adaptation solutions in Italy. Examples of addressing equity and social vulnerability challenges include the emerging issue of climate ligation illustrated through several court cases on liability for SLR-related damage.