How an economic and financial perspective could guide transformational adaptation to sea level rise

Accelerating sea level rise puts pressure on coastlines globally. Wealthy urbanized deltas like The Netherlands have historically followed the strategy of building increasingly large flood defence systems. But there is growing attention for ‘transformational’ alternatives such as adapting (‘accommodating’) land use to increasing flood risk. Until now, debates on coastal adaptation strategies have focused on aspects in the realm of the natural and engineering sciences. There has been limited attention to broader financial and economic arguments such as the increased financial risks associated with ever higher flood defence systems or the potential real estate devaluation of an ‘accommodate-retreat’ strategy. We advocate for a dialogue in which such economic and financial mechanisms are acknowledged, understood and thoroughly integrated into adaptation discourse.