Examines adaptation in coastal communities: hazard exposure, planning and zoning instruments, infrastructure decisions, insurance and finance, managed retreat, and the distributional consequences of each.
The recurring finding is that the binding constraint is rarely technical. The engineering options are generally known. What determines the outcome is who pays, which authority may act, what a property market will absorb, and whether a community can sustain a decision across electoral cycles.
Adjustment costs are treated explicitly. Households in declining resource economies frequently remain because licensing, debt and capital tie them in place rather than because they lack skills or willingness, and adaptation programs designed on the opposite assumption fail predictably.
Students complete a project for an actual community or agency where a suitable case is available.