Colin Green

Stakeholder engagement is widely acknowledged as a necessary component of strategy building processes for coastal management. However perceptions regarding the nature, processes and value of engagement vary considerably. Using London and the Thames Estuary as a case-study, this paper argues that coastal managers and scientists should expect engagement to be challenging. After all, engagement is embedded in the complexities of how individuals and communities perceive coastal `problems', as well as the reality of the complex physical and social environments within such problems emerge. However an important message is that whilst engagement may be difficult, it is a key vehicle for gaining new insights in to both the nature of complex coastal problems and options for increasing the sustainability of coastal management. "Conversation" is critical to learning and therefore to more successful integration of our understanding of coastal behaviour and subsequent policy approaches for coastal management.

McFadden, L. and Green, C., 2007. Defining ‘vulnerability’: conflicts, complexities and implications for Coastal Zone Management. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 120 – 124. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 This paper argues that important insights for improved coastal management can be gained by examining complexities involved in defining vulnerable coastal environments and communities. ‘Vulnerability’ has emerged as an important concept in understanding and managing coastal environments: yet a significant degree of conflict has been associated to the use of the term. Definitions of ‘vulnerability’ have been contested in terms of the nature of, and the driving forcing underpinning, vulnerable environments. However, conflicts also surround the very concept itself, in particular efforts towards identifying a ‘true’ definition of the term. The paper suggests that such conflicts highlight the fact that the definition of a coast as vulnerable is not a neutral act. Conceptualising ‘vulnerability’ must be considered not only as a technical matter but in terms of social relationships between those involved in coastal management. This necessitates that scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders involved in managing the coast, consider vulnerability analysis a comprehensive systems assessment of coastal environments and communities. The learning process, through which such a comprehensive assessment is achieved, is critical to creating new and more useful insights into the behaviour of the total coastal system. Simplifying vulnerability for coastal management has occurred at the cost of the essential complexity of coastal systems. If vulnerability analysis is to make a significant contribution to sustainable management of 21st Century coasts, we must be certain to retain this complexity in our approaches to understanding the term.