Fostering Sustainable Coastal Development under Climate Change: Balancing Ecology and Human Needs in Pacific Rim Countries

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, the global focus on climate change has shifted from being characterized as a focus on what to do about the climate change “activation” problem (Anderson 2019), declaring a code red “climate emergency” (UN 2021), to characterizing climate change as an “out of control” impending catastrophe for humankind (UN 2023). The current and projected adverse impacts are going to be particularly challenging in the Pacific Rim region of the world (36 nations), with an estimated 21% of all climate displacements being concentrated in this region in just the last year (Grid, 2022). There is already and will continue to be intensifying natural hazard phenomena that include wildfires, flooding (sea level rise and riparian), typhoon/cyclones, drought, landslides, and heat waves, as well as societal challenges from economic, health, infrastructural system stresses, and failures (IPCC AR 6, 2022). Yet development continues apace in the coastal Pacific Rim region, with some of the fastest growing populations and economies in the world (IMF 2023) grappling with where and how to urbanize in a sustainable manner. How can Pacific Rim nations continue to develop sustainability in coastal areas while simultaneously protecting the environmental resources and systems that are the basis for all life, protecting the least powerful and disadvantaged from having to carry the burdens of climate change, and ensuring that the manner of development provides both meaningful livelihood opportunities and individual well-being (materially and otherwise)？

The Pacific Rim region’s shared geophysical geographies, interdependent economies, and varied governance systems offer a wealth of opportunities to examine what Sustainable Coastal Development can and should look like in the coming decades. This Special Issue of Sustainability seeks submissions that advance this understanding in three key areas focusing on any of the following three scales (communities, nations, and subregions of the Pacific Rim): (1) new normative or explanatory theoretical models to better inform sustainable coastal development, (2) descriptive and explanatory research that helps better characterize coastal development risks and vulnerabilities under climate change, and (3) descriptive and explanatory research that improves our understanding of sustainable pathways to coastal development in light of intensifying risks and uncertainty posed by climate change. Since sustainability embraces a broad range of ontological and epistemological ways of knowing and creating knowledge, we encourage submissions from multiple research traditions, but we expect that the ontological/epistemic basis for the work will be clearly stated in the introductory material so that we can select appropriate reviewers for the peer review process.

We are pleased to invite submissions for a Special Issue of Sustainability focused on Fostering Sustainable Development under Climate Change within the Pacific Rim region. The 36 nations that geo-physically connect to the Pacific Ocean represent some of the fastest growing nations and economies in the world, with high levels of trade interconnection and a broad diversity of cultures, geophysical settings, and governance systems. Those nations and communities also collectively share a great amount of risks and vulnerabilities due to climate change, with many facing significant environmental, social, and economic challenges and change due to sea level rise, natural hazard intensification, and ecological disruptions. This Special Issue welcomes the submission of recently completed theoretical and empirical research that could help the region and globe better understand the risks and vulnerabilities that all coastal communities, nations, and subregions face, as well as possible pathways forward that are more resilient to the risk, complexity, and uncertainty presented by climate change.

Dr. Robert Paterson
Prof. Dr. Juchul Jung
Guest Editors

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• coastal development
• sustainable development
• climate resilience
• climate change mitigation
• climate change adaptation
• social justice
• ecological resilience
• circular economy
• hazard mitigation