Challenges and opportunities in climate change adaptation for communities in Europe's northern periphery

Adaptation to climate change in geographically isolated, peripheral coastal communities holds particular challenges. In the CoastAdapt project a common approach was applied to support climate change adaptation in study sites in peripheral regions of Northwest Europe (Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Iceland). This involved a series of workshops at each site to describe the nature of future climate change, identify site-specific climate-change-related issues and explore adaptation options. While there are common issues related to the impacts of sea level rise, other aspects tend to be site and time-specific. The occurrence of recent high impact events (storms or floods), in particular, exert a strong influence on community perceptions. The studies reveal that availability of resources, knowledge of options (and their implications), and the particular governance framework in operation are major determinants of the adaptation options selected.