island,costs,marine
there is a very large coastal and island resort industry which is potentially vulnerable to rising sea levels and increased storm and flood risk (ฺBuckley,2008c),but which to date has done rather little to respond to that risk.Most of this sector is urban beach tourism, but it also includes coastal and island resorts and lodges catering to adventure sectors such as surfing,diving,and whale watching (see chapter 10). There are a number of possible reasons as to why coastal destinations have been much slower than ski resorts to respond to climate change. Firstly,sea level rise is caused by melting polar ice and by thermal expansion of ocean water,and these are slower processes than the atmospheric warming which affects winter snow.Perhaps,therefore,ski resorts felt the effects of climate change before their coastal counterpart.Indeed,even though the most critical impacts of climate change on coastal communities and environments are through more severe and frequent storms and floods rather than increase in mean sea level, ocean weather patterns are too complex to differentiate the effectys of climate change from those of shorter-term climatic oscillations at scales of decades.
The second possible reason,perhaps equally important,is that most ski resorts are owend and operated by individual corporations which face any financial risks directly and can respond quickly and coherently.Most coastal tourist communities,in contrast,are municipalities with numerous individual landholders who face different degrees of risk and a local government subjrect to complex political constraints.This cannot be the only factor,because some ski resorts are municipalities and some coastal and island resorts are private corporations.It does,however,appear that in coastal areas there is extensive debate over the respective liabilities and responsibilities of private landholders,local governments,and higher-level governments.Some of this is legal,e.g. over current liabilities for past planning decisions.Some is economic,over current and future responsibilities to invest in protective engineering works,to meet the costs of repairing