Land Abandoned to the Sea: The Managed Realignment of Coastal Areas (International Library of Human Geography)

Significant changes are affecting coastlines around the world due to economic pressures and climate change. This book addresses the social, cultural and political context of the process of managed coastal realignment, the strategic abandonment of the coast, as a means of coping with these changes. With a specific focus on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, Stuart Oliver analyses the cultural and social implications of managed retreat and proposes managed realignment as a practical way in which society can rethink itself, addressing the new realities of the environment and a move towards developing a more sustainable relationship with it. "Significant changes are affecting coastlines around the world due to economic pressures and climate change. This book addresses the social, cultural and political context of the process of managed coastal realignment, the strategic abandonment of the coast, as a means of coping with these changes. With a specific focus on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, Stuart Oliver analyses the cultural and social implications of managed retreat and proposes managed realignment as a practical way in which society can rethink itself, address the new realities of the environment and move towards developing a more sustainable relationship with it."-- Provided by publisher Chapter 1. Managed realignment and its context -- Chapter 2. Stakeholder ecologies and managed realignment -- Chapter 3. Inventing managed realignment -- Chapter 4. The community of reception of managed realignment -- Chapter 5. Making the new wetlands: the sites of managed realignment -- Chapter 6. The place of managed realignment -- Conclusion Cover Contents List of illustrations Introduction 1 Managed realignment and its context 2 Invention 3 Politics 4 Geography 5 The sites of managed realignment 6 The reception of managed realignment 7 Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index Coastal management has been greatly influenced by the rise of environmentalism, with its greater emphasis on the preservation of natural processes and restoration of habitats.