Global Assessment: Bridging Scales and Linking to Policy Scales in coastal land use: policy and individual decision-making (an economic perspective)

Climate change and increasing sea levels directly affect opportunities for land-use development in coastal zones. This is especially relevant for the Netherlands where the most highly developed areas and main centres of economic activity occupy land that lies below sea level. According to the concept of Integrated Coastal Zone management (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat Rijkswaterstaat 2002), coastal management and spatial planning policies should be coupled to promote safety along the coast. More severe storms and sea-level rise will shift the erosion line (this line identifies the part of the land surface that will erode during a storm surge) landwards making economic developments in coastal areas more vulnerable. Potential damage from flooding increases not only because of the shifting erosion line but also because of current economic investments (i.e. land value growth in coastal zones). Figure . Safety lines for the town Bergen aan Zee, the Netherlands Traditionally the Dutch Government assures a certain safety level for territory in the coastal area. However, by applying updated methods to determine the probability of flooding (Ministry of Transport Public Works and Water Management 2005), parts of some coastal towns appeared to be legally unprotected (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat Rijkswaterstaat 2002). The total damage for 13 coastal towns not protected by dykes is €6.607 million (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat Rijkswaterstaat 2005). Figure 1 presents the case of Bergen aan Zee — a coastal town in the province Noord-Holland in the Netherlands. The area, which is on or in front of the flood defences (marked as a thick black line here — Kernzone) has no legal protection level with respect to coastal erosion or flooding. Moreover, the position of this line is dynami