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Climate-resilient coasts require diverse defence solutions

Nature Climate Change volume 10, pages 485–487 (2020)Cite this article

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Traditional coastal protection methods that rely on built, hard structures like seawalls may not be effective to keep pace with a changing climate. Nature-based coastal defences based on habitat restoration can be an adaptive coastal protection alternative.

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Fig. 1: Nature-based coastal defences.

reproduced from ref. 20, Mike Hilton (a); ref. 21, Taylor & Francis (b); ref. 20, Taylor & Francis (d)

Fig. 2: A decision support framework for integrating nature-based coastal defence.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. James for his valuable comments on drafts of this manuscript. We also thank D. Provis for his advice on uptake and use in the engineering profession. The National Centre for Coasts and Climate is funded through the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Coasts and Climate, School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Rebecca L. Morris & Stephen E. Swearer

  2. School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Anthony Boxshall

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  1. Rebecca L. Morris
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  2. Anthony Boxshall
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  3. Stephen E. Swearer
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Correspondence to Rebecca L. Morris.

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Morris, R.L., Boxshall, A. & Swearer, S.E. Climate-resilient coasts require diverse defence solutions. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 485–487 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0798-9

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