Coastal Adaptation through flexible land-use (COALA)

COALA (Coastal adaptation through flexible land-use) challenges incremental climate adaptation of the coast by shifting the focus to transformative adaptation.

This will be done by proposing how flexibility in spatial planning and design, flexibility in land use and functions can be achieved to embrace change and thus avoid maladaptation for future generations.

COALA contains five main integrative activities, namely to contextualize the institutional capacity of the planning space over time to act flexibly; to visualize in GIS the physical space for flexibility in land use over several Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs); to visualize future flexible land use functions based on local knowledge, arts-based narratives and stories; interweave these actions for practical use for coastal municipalities to become more flexible in their planning by illuminating ‘windows of opportunities’, and; translate this into a digital roadmap for coastal municipalities in Sweden to become resilient to flooding, erosion and rising seas.

COALA will be conducted as a Living Lab approach in Kalmar county and more specifically in Kalmar Municipality to facilitates the engagement among researchers, policymakers and citizens throughout the entire project.

COALA is an interdisciplinary research project that integrates knowledge and expertise in social sciences, natural sciences, technology, and the humanities.