Re-imagining urban coasts: a socio-geomorphology lens to enhance life in an era of extremes

Geomorphology has much to contribute to the understanding of how geomorphic landscapes have responded to climatological extremes and will likely respond in the future. These contributions can be in terms of systems dynamics and their past, present and likely future responses to sudden events, tipping points or more gradual changes to natural landforms and anthropogenic structures. However, equally importantly, geomorphic contributions also include making proactive resilience and climate change adaptation decisions in order to create physical space for geomorphic systems to respond more naturally and dynamically to extremes – now or in the near (100 year) future. The choices society makes in the present – such as planning, infrastructure and engineering decisions – have a strong bearing on the physical space left to allow natural landforms to adjust to extreme events while minimizing social and economic impacts. This creates a new frontier for geomorphology science at the social, political and policy interface.  Interesting questions arise in this space, such as: How much do we expect a geomorphic system to respond dynamically to extreme forcing? i.e. How much physical space do we [planners] need for the system to respond to an extreme event? Should society see storms as catalysts for proactive adaptation? How much (physical space, i.e. geomorphic accommodation space) can we allow when realigning road or rail inland to reduce risk in future storm events? How do complex physical geomorphic systems interact with complex urban systems? Can we work with artists, landscape architects, geo-spatial, urban and social scientists to create transformative, systems-based adaptation scenarios to allow us to better live in an era of extremes? Geomorphologists are usefully contributing to improving the resilience and/or limiting deterioration or habitat loss (e.g. habitat squeeze due to sea level rise) in urban ecosystems and anthropogenic structures.  This includes geomorphic contributions to nature-based solutions, green infrastructure and the resilience of traditional engineering to extreme events.  This paper highlights some of the opportunities we have to influence and shape our future resilience to extreme events – in the present day – through interdisciplinary research and socio-geomorphology practice. We need to create windows of opportunity now for more dynamic and resilient geomorphic futures.