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Author(s): Loraine McFadden, Robert Nicholls, Edmund Penning-Rowsell
ISBN(s): 9780080447032, 0080447031
Edition: Illustrated
File Details: PDF, 5.81 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english

MANAGING COASTAL VULNERABILITY
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MANAGING COASTAL
VULNERABILITY
EDITED BY
LORAINE MCFADDEN
Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, UK
ROBERT J. NICHOLLS
School of Civil Engineering and The Environment and the Tyndall Centre
for Climate Change Research, University of Southampton, UK
and
EDMUND PENNING-ROWSELL
Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, UK
Amsterdam ● Boston ● Heidelberg ● London ● New York ● Oxford
Paris ● San Diego ● San Francisco ● Singapore ● Sydney ● Tokyo
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Elsevier
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First edition 2007
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Prelims.qxd 11/11/2006 2:27 PM Page iv

Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables xiii
Contributors xvii
Acknowledgements xix
1. Setting the Parameters: A Framework for Developing Cross-Cutting
Perspectives of Vulnerability for Coastal Zone Management 1
Loraine McFadden, Edmund Penning-Rowsell and Robert J. Nicholls
2. Vulnerability Analysis: A Useful Concept for Coastal Management? 15
Loraine McFadden
3. More or Less than Words? Vulnerability as Discourse 29
Colin Green and Edmund Penning-Rowsell
4. The Natural Resilience of Coastal Systems: Primary Concepts 45
Colin D. Woodroffe
5. Integrating Knowledge for Assessing Coastal Vulnerability to
Climate Change 61
Jochen Hinkel and Richard J.T. Klein
6. The Vulnerability and Sustainability of Deltaic Coasts: The Case of the
Ebro Delta, Spain 79
Augustin Sánchez-Arcilla, Jose A. Jiménez and Herminia I. Valdemoro
7. Local Communities under Threat: Managed Realignment at Corton
Village, Suffolk 97
Sylvia Tunstall and Sue Tapsell
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8. The Indian Ocean Tsunami: Local Resilience in Phuket 121
John Handmer, Bronwyn Coate and Wei Choong
9. Vulnerability of the New York City Metropolitan Area to Coastal Hazards,
Including Sea-Level Rise: Inferences for Urban Coastal Risk Management
and Adaptation Policies 141
Klaus Jacob, Vivien Gornitz and Cynthia Rosenzweig
10. Promoting Sustainable Resilience in Coastal Andhra Pradesh 159
Peter Winchester, Marcel Marchand and Edmund Penning-Rowsell
11. Reducing the Vulnerability of Natural Coastal Systems: A UK Perspective 177
Julian Orford, John Pethick and Loraine McFadden
12. Promoting Sustainability on Vulnerable Island Coasts: A Case Study of the
Smaller Pacific Islands 195
Patrick D. Nunn and Nobuo Mimura
13. Managing Coastal Vulnerability and Climate Change: A National to Global
Perspective 223
Robert J. Nicholls, Richard J.T. Klein and Richard S.J. Tol
14. Vulnerability and Beyond 243
Loraine McFadden, Edmund Penning-Rowsell and Robert J. Nicholls
Subject Index 261
vi Contents
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List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Understanding vulnerability for coastal management: a simplified
approach. 4
Figure 2.1: Differences in recovery time from external forcing between physical
and social systems. 19
Figure 2.2: Developing regional- and hazard-specific methodologies for
vulnerability assessment from generic assessment of coastal
behaviour. 21
Figure 2.3: Vulnerability analysis: restructuring the basic processes to promote
new of ‘better’ functions. 25
Figure 3.1: Conflict and choice. 31
Figure 3.2: Signifier and signified. 35
Figure 3.3: Words as metaphors. 36
Figure 3.4: Words as seeds and elaborations. 37
Figure 3.5: Towards a typology of definitions of vulnerability. 39
Figure 3.6: A modified sustainable livelihood model of a household. 41
Figure 4.1: Beach morphodynamic concepts illustrated for schematic beach
between headlands. 47
Figure 4.2: Three beaches adopting a different type of equilibrium
(after Woodroffe, 2003). 48
Figure 4.3: The concept of equilibrium. 49
Figure 4.4: Temporal and spatial scales (based on Cowell & Thom, 1994,
modified from Woodroffe, 2003), and significant processes on reefs. 50
Figure 4.5: Coastal lagoon or barrier estuary, as found along coast of southeastern
Australia. 53
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Figure 4.6: Coastal lagoon showing coupling between beach states (as shown in
Figure 4.1) and water level. 54
Figure 4.7: Schematic representation of different concepts of resilience. 55
Figure 4.8: Response of reef stratigraphy to sea-level change
(after Woodroffe, 2003). 57
Figure 5.1: The DIVA development process. 68
Figure 5.2: Module linkages in the DIVA model. 69
Figure 6.1: The Ebro delta. 80
Figure 6.2: Subaerial surface changes in the Ebro delta from 1957 to 2000. 82
Figure 6.3: Area changes around the shoreline of the Ebro delta from 1957
to 2000. 83
Figure 6.4: The Ebro delta National Park area. 86
Figure 6.5: Overwash deposits in cultivated lands in the Marquesa beach
after the impact of the November 2001 storm.
Source: Spanish Ministry of Environment. 91
Figure 7.1: Map of the Corton seafront showing the location of the threatened
holiday facilities and access to the seafront. 103
Figure 7.2: The small ‘Wy Wurry’ caravan park ironically the most immediately
vulnerable of Corton’s holiday facilities. 106
Figure 7.3: Caravans located at the cliff edge in another Corton caravan park
threatened by coastal erosion. 106
Figure 7.4: Corton’s coastal defences, sea wall, promenade and revetments
collapsed due to undermining in the winter of 2000–2001. 107
Figure 7.5: Corton’s coastal defences at high tide renewed in 2002–2003 with a
narrow walkway on the sea wall and extensive rock cliff protection. 117
Figure 8.1: The location of the Southern Thailand island of Phuket. 123
Figure 8.2: The fate of dollars spent by overseas visitors to Phuket. 125
Figure 8.3: Number of domestic and international arrivals at Phuket Airport
2004–2005. 131
Figure 9.1: Map of Metropolitan East Coast Study Region with insert location. 142
Figure 9.2: Expected zones of storm surge flooding in lower Manhattan
and parts of Brooklyn as a function of storm Level on the
Saffir–Simpson Scale (SS 1–4). 143
Figure 9.3: Five models of projected sea level rise for the Battery at the southern
tip of Manhattan, New York City. 145
viii List of Figures
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Figure 9.4: Map of the central portion of the MEC study area. Gray shading
shows the areas at elevations below 3 m (10 ft to be exact) above
the present mean sea level. 146
Figure 9.5: Reduction in the 100-year recurrence period for three future decades
and the five sea-level rise models shown in Figure 9.3. 147
Figure 9.6: Current lowest critical elevations of facilities operated by the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey vs. changing storm
elevations at these locations for surge recurrence periods of
10, 50 and 500 years between 2000 (baseline) and the 2090s. 148
Figure 10.1: Coastal Andhra Pradesh, India, showing the Divi Seema study area
and the village survey transects. 160
Figure 10.2: Coastal vulnerability assessment model (Delft Hydraulics, 2003). 170
Figure 11.1: (a) The general trajectory of coastal forms as susceptibility
increases and resilience decreases as a consequence. (b) An
oblique view of the drift dominated spit developing westwards
from the coastal exit of the river Sprey (Inverness, Scotland).
(c) An oblique aerial view looking south over the swash-aligned
and segmented beaches of Aberystwyth (Ceridigion, west Wales:
photograph courtesy of Ceredigion County Council). 180
Figure 11.2: The tolerability of each coastal management policy option identified
for the UK (DEFRA, 2001), as part of the preferred pathway over
the next half-century. 182
Figure 11.3: A schematic view as to how an original wave-sediment cell
of sediment source, transport corridor and sediment sink is
disturbed and deflected by human intervention in pursuit
of social and economic development centred upon the
coastline. 183
Figure 11.4: (a) Artificial reprofiling of the gravel barrier at Cley (North
Norfolk, England: photograph courtesy of John Pethick) to
act as a flood defence scheme. (b) A comparison of unmanaged
and managed barrier profiles at Cley (North Norfolk). 185
Figure 11.5: Structure (a) and location (b) of a Tan-y-bwlch gravel barrier
(Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, west Wales). (c) Profile positions
along the Tan-y-bwlch gravel barrier from which the annual
rate of migration of index contours are shown in (d). (d) Annual
rate of migration of specific index contours for profile positions
along the Tan-y-bwlch gravel barrier. 188
Figure 11.6: The potential structure of UK future governance — consumerism
domain into four scenarios related to scale of climate forcing and
hence potential for coastal forcing. 191
List of Figures ix
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Figure 12.1: Map of the Pacific Islands regions showing the principal island
groups mentioned in the text. 196
Figure 12.2: (a) What remained of the K-Mart (supermarket) on Niue Island after
Cyclone Heta in January 2004. (b) The place where Tuapa Church
once stood on Niue Island, following the impact of Cyclone Heta in
January 2004 (photo by Emani Lui, used with permission). 199
Figure 12.3: (a) Navuti Village on Moturiki Island in central Fiji occupied a
40-m broad strip of low-lying coastal flat that lies 10–30 cm
above mean high-tide level and is regularly flooded. (b) The
buffer zone of vegetation between the ocean (on the right) and
the village of Amuri (left) on Aitutaki Island in the Cook Islands
(photo by Patrick Nunn). 200
Figure 12.4: (a) Shoreline erosion manifested by fallen coconut palms along
the back of the beach near Navitilevu Village on Naigani Island,
central Fiji (photo by Patrick Nunn). (b) Coastal erosion at Nukui
Village, Rewa Delta, Viti Levu Island, Fiji (photo by Nobuo
Mimura). (c) Coastal erosion on Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu (photo by
Nobuo Mimura). (d) Beachrock on Ha’atafu Beach in Tongatapu
Island, Tonga (photo by Nobuo Mimura). 202
Figure 12.5: Map of Ovalau and Moturiki islands, central Fiji, showing the relative
severity of shoreline erosion at every coastal settlement (after Nunn,
1999a, 2000a). 203
Figure 12.6: Shoreline of a tropical Pacific Island resort in July 2003 has resulted
in the removal of the sand covering the beachrock (darker area on
right) and the limestone bedrock (centre) (photo by Patrick Nunn). 204
Figure 12.7: Changes in settlement pattern on a typical smaller island in the
tropical Pacific during the past 1200 years. (a) Settlement pattern at
the start of the Little Climatic Optimum (Medieval Warm Period)
about 1200 years BP (AD 750). (b) Settlement pattern towards the
end of the Little Climatic Optimum about 700 years BP (AD 1250).
(c) Settlement pattern during the early part of the Little Ice Age. 207
Figure 12.8: (a) Piles (1 and 2) of duva (Derris elliptica) roots used for poisoning
fish in a cleared area of mangrove swamps on the island Moturiki
(central Fiji) (photo by Patrick Nunn). (b) Fragments of reef rock
on sale on the side of the main highway, Lami Town, just outside
Suva, the capital of Fiji (photo by Patrick Nunn). 210
Figure 12.9: (a) Detail of a wall on Thulusdhoo Island, Maldives, to show the ways
in which coral rock is utilized in such constructions when there are no
other sources of hard rock available. (b) Remains of the seawall at
Yadua Village, Viti Levu Island, Fiji (photo by Patrick Nunn). 212
x List of Figures
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Figure 12.10: Integrated system of natural coastal protection in the Pacific
Islands. 216
Figure 13.1: Schematic view of the operation of the DIVA tool. 228
Figure 13.2: Summary of the sea-level rise impact assessment methodology
within the FUND model 229
Figure 13.3: Sample results from DIVA: coastal flooding in 2000. (a) Flood
plain population; (b) incidence of flooding at a regional scale;
(c) incidence of flooding at a national scale and (d) incidence
of flooding at a sub-national scale. 231
List of Figures xi
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List of Tables
Table 5.1: The vulnerability indicators of the IPCC methodology. 64
Table 5.2: The modules of DIVA model. 73
Table 5.3: Selected output of the DIVA model. 74
Table 6.1: Estimation of the natural (function based) partial vulnerability
index for the Ebro delta due to long-term coastline changes from
1957 to 2000. 87
Table 6.2: Potential impact (ratio of affected surface to actual surface) of
different units contributing to the deltaic natural function from
1957 to 2000 for different weighting scales. 88
Table 7.1: Social and economic impacts of flooding and erosion on individuals
and communities. 98
Table 7.2: Intangible impacts of riverine and coastal flooding on individuals
and communities. 99
Table 7.3: Holiday facilities at Corton. 105
Table 7.4: Descriptions of the options for adaptation. 109
Table 7.5: Public response to adaptations to erosion through scheme options. 110
Table 7.6: Priority for protecting different types of use of the coast. 114
Table 8.1: Examples of informal sector occupations in Southern Thailand. 122
Table 8.2: Size of the informal economy in Thailand in 2002. 125
Table 8.3: Size of the informal sector across selected Nations. 128
Table 8.4: The human cost of the tsunami by province in Southern Thailand. 130
Table 9.1: Estimates of losses (in 2000-US$) in the MEC region for storms
with shown surge heights. 149
Table 9.2: Selected key institutions in the New York City Metropolitan area
with a stake in coastal zone management. 153
LOT.qxd 11/11/2006 2:27 PM Page xiii

Table 9.3: Stakeholder partners in the MEC project/coastal zone study. 154
Table 10.1: The incidence and impact of severe and normal cyclones crossing
the Andhra Pradesh coastline between 1949 and 1983 (Winchester,
1992, p. 7). 161
Table 10.2: Density of population per square km in regions of Andhra Pradesh,
1971–2001. 162
Table 10.3: Recovery between 1977 and 1997 in Krishna delta
(Winchester, 2000). 164
Table 10.4: The percentage of households in 2001 that perceived particular
aspects of development as having the most negative impacts on
their lives (Winchester & Penning-Rowsell, 2001; Table 3.1,
Appendix IV). 166
Table 10.5: The incidence of cyclones and extremes of climatic variation in
coastal Andhra Pradesh (Winchester, 1992). 167
Table 10.6: Development scenarios (Delft Hydraulics, 2003). 171
Table 10.7: Coastal vulnerability model: results for Godavari Delta (Delft
Hydraulics, 2003). 172
Table 11.1: (Un)changing coastal vulnerability (V) through changing
() susceptibility and resilience. Relative increases (⫹) or
decreases (⫺) in susceptibility and/or resilience will cause a
shift in vulnerability. 179
Table 11.2: Varying manifest and latent coastal resilience outcomes based on
engineered protection. 181
Table 11.3: Estimated annual sediment availability between Flamborough Head
and North Foreland (eastern England) and budget requirement for
varying rates of sea-level rise. 186
Table 11.4: Variable responses to possible future UK governance/values scenarios,
affecting human approaches to coastal vulnerability through protection
issues related to coastal barriers. 192
Table 12.1: Characteristics of selected Pacific Island coasts. 197
Table 13.1: Major impacts and potential adaptation responses to sea-level rise. 227
Table 13.2: The four major physical impacts of sea-level rise, plus the adaptation
approaches that are considered in the DIVA tool. 229
Table 13.3: Global-mean sea-level rise scenarios for 1990–2100 for each SRES
scenario. 232
Table 13.4: Global population of the coastal flood plain (millions) in 2100. The
results are independent of assumptions about adaptation. 233
xiv List of Tables
LOT.qxd 11/11/2006 2:27 PM Page xiv

Table 13.5: Global estimates of people flooded in 2100 (millions/year) assuming
constant protection and economically optimum protection,
respectively. 233
Table13.6: Global estimates of people flooded in 2100 (millions/year) assuming
constant protection and economically optimum protection,
respectively. 234
Table 14.1: Five key areas where coastal vulnerability research in the social
sciences would produce valuable results. 254
Table 14.2: Understanding coastal vulnerability: five key research topics in the
environmental/engineering science areas. 256
Table 14.3: Understanding coastal vulnerability: five key research topics in
integrated science. 257
List of Tables xv
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Contributors
Wei Choong Centre for Risk and Community Safety, School of Mathematical and
Geospatial Sciences, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Bronwyn Coate Centre for Risk and Community Safety, School of Mathematical and
Geospatial Sciences, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Vivien Gornitz Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, Mail Code
0205 and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, Mail Code
0201, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
Colin Green Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway, Enfield
EN3 4SF, UK
John Handmer Centre for Risk and Community Safety, School of Mathematical and
Geospatial Sciences, GPO Box 2476V Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia, and Flood Hazard
Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway, Enfield EN3 4SF, UK
Jochen Hinkel Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), P.O. Box 601203,
D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
Klaus Jacob Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, P.O. Box 1000,
Palisades, NY 10964, USA
José A. Jiménez Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima, ETSECCPB, Universitat Poltècnica
de Catalunya, c/Jordi Girona 1-3, Campus Nord ed. D1, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Richard J.T. Klein Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), P.O. Box
601203, 14412 Potsdam, Germany
Marcel Marchand Marine and Coastal Management, WL | Delft Hydraulics, P.O. Box
177, 2600 MH Delft, The Netherlands
Nobuo Mimura Center for Water Environment Studies, Ibaraki University, Hitachi,
Ibaraki 316-8511, Japan
LOC.qxd 11/11/2006 2:26 PM Page xvii

Loraine McFadden Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway,
Enfield EN3 4SF, UK
Robert J. Nicholls School of Civil Engineering and the Environment and the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17
1BJ, UK
Patrick D. Nunn Department of Geography, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji
Julian Orford School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University,
Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
Edmund Penning-Rowsell Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University,
Queensway, Enfield EN3 4SF, UK
John Pethick Independent Consultant, Beverley, East Yorks HU17 0DN, UK
Cynthia Rosenzweig Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, Mail
Code 0205 and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, Mail
Code 0201, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
Agustin Sanchez-Arcilla Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima, ETSECCPB, Universitat
Poltècnica de Catalunya, c/Jordi Girona 1-3, Campus Nord ed. D1, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Sue Tapsell Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway, Enfield
EN3 4SF, UK
Richard S.J. Tol Centre for Marine and Climate Research, Hamburg University,
Hamburg, Germany; Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands; and Centre for Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global
Change, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Sylvia Tunstall Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway,
Enfield, EN3 4SA, UK
Herminia I. Valdemoro Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima, ETSECCPB, Universitat
Poltècnica de Catalunya, c/Jordi Girona 1-3, Campus Nord ed. D1, 08034 Barcelona,
Spain
Colin D. Woodroffe School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Peter Winchester Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University, Queensway,
Enfield EN3 4SF, UK
xviii Contributors
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Acknowledgements
As editors we record our thanks to the authors, whose contributions comprise this volume.
A number of individuals have also played an important role in the completion of this book.
Susan Hanson has been pivotal to the submission of the volume with her diligence in han-
dling the references lists and assistance in formatting author contributions. Ruth McFadden
proofread a large number of the manuscripts and undertook a number of smaller jobs, which
added up to a great measure of relief in the editing process. Yvette Brown, from the techni-
cal unit of Middlesex University, kindly undertook the role of formatting figures and tables
throughout the volume. The Royal Society, London, provided the conference facilities for
the initial exploratory workshop for this volume. Finally, our thanks go to the editorial team
at Elsevier, especially to Joanna Scott who has been most supportive throughout the editing
process.
LMF, RN, and EPR
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Chapter 1
Setting the Parameters: A Framework for
Developing Cross-Cutting Perspectives of
Vulnerability for Coastal Zone Management
Loraine McFadden, Edmund Penning-Rowsell and
Robert J. Nicholls
Introduction
The concept of vulnerability is often brought sharply into focus by disasters, whether
induced from a natural forcing event or the direct result of human activity. The commence-
ment of the 21st century has been marked by a series of catastrophic events and so issues
surrounding ‘vulnerability’are very much on the public, political and scientific agenda. The
2001 terrorist attack in New York City and Washington, DC embedded a deep realisation of
stark vulnerabilities, which can define major urban areas. In the coastal zone, the devastat-
ing December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has raised important questions as to the vulner-
ability of coastal communities and the physical environment to such high-magnitude natural
hazards. The impacts of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, espe-
cially in New Orleans, in August 2005 have continued these concerns and raised a debate
about coastal habitation in low-lying flood prone areas.
This book examines coastal vulnerability and so focuses on a particular range of pressures,
responses and management approaches to vulnerable environments. At the boundary between
the land and the sea, coastal systems occupy one of the most physically dynamic interfaces on
Earth, encompassing a wide range of natural environments (McCarthy et al., 2001). Pressures
on ecosystems within such environments are defined by an array of land-, river- and ocean-
based drivers, and demands for goods and services from these systems are expected to increase
for the foreseeable future (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Many economic sec-
tors and major urban areas are located within the coastal zone. Indeed, the average population
density within 100 km of the shoreline (112 people/km2
) is several times higher than the aver-
age global population density of 44 people/km2
(Small Nicholls, 2003). The coast also
plays an important role in global transportation and the tourist industry. Coastal regions are
Managing Coastal Vulnerability
Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier Ltd.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISBN: 0-08-044703-1
Ch001.qxd 11/11/2006 12:01 PM Page 1

therefore complex, multi-functional systems with uniquely far-reaching and extensive con-
flicts of interests surrounding the use and management of coastal resources.
Alongside the important functional role of coastal systems are the significant hazards
which impact these regions. The range of hazards faced by coastal communities can be
extensive, and in addition to the hazards of more landward areas can include: surge and
sea-water flooding, transmission of marine-related infectious diseases, extensive erosion
and sedimentation hazards, hurricanes, tsunamis, oil spills and other technological-based
hazards. Such threats underline the importance of understanding and managing the vul-
nerabilities of coastal environments and communities.
A brief introduction to the issues and questions that surround the concept of a vulnera-
ble coastal zone, very quickly suggests that there are wide ranging spatial and temporal
scales over which vulnerability can be considered. Some pressures on coastal systems are
related to large-scale, high-magnitude/low-frequency events and have been a focus for dis-
aster and global change research and management. However, the problems presented by
vulnerable coasts and coastal communities can also be very much linked to the day-to-day
management of local and regional-scale coastal behaviour. Coastal vulnerability research
is therefore characterised by a wide range of challenging dimensions. Given the complex
and debated nature of the concept, can vulnerability analysis bring useful insights to poli-
cies and strategies for managing the coastal system?
There seems to be a widespread consensus and concern about climate change and
coasts and coastal nations have been urged to assess the vulnerability of their ecological
and socio-economic systems to sea-level rise and other climate change impacts on the coastal
environment (McCarthy et al., 2001). There have been considerable research interests sur-
rounding the problems that lead to vulnerable coastlines and coastal communities and to
methods of assessing vulnerability within the coastal zone (e.g. Capobianco et al., 1999;
Thieler Hammar-Klose, 1999, 2000; Pethick Crooks, 2000; Nicholls, 2002, 2004;
Adger et al., 2005). The wider disaster, climate change, human and food security literature
that surrounds various forms of vulnerability to environment change is extensive. The con-
text of sustainable development also provides a framework through which the type of real-
world concerns (e.g., the WEHAB framework of the Johannesburg Summit, United Nations,
2002), which are often the impetuses for coastal vulnerability assessments, may be assessed.
However, limited information exists as to how vulnerability can be actively reduced to pro-
mote the sustainable development and use of the coastal zone: that is, examining the poten-
tial impact and contribution of vulnerability analysis to coastal management.
This volume explicitly addresses, in this context, the question of the potential of the
vulnerability concept to act as a basis for improving decision making in Coastal Zone
Management. Its primary focus is therefore not on the problems that define vulnerable
coastal systems per se or on methodologies or tools to quantify the vulnerabilities of
coastal systems. Rather, the book sets out to explore the utility of vulnerability assessment
as a tool for managing complex coastal systems.
Understanding specific coastal use issues and the processes that create vulnerable
coastal systems remains essential to examining the implications of the concept for coastal
zone management. Many chapters will discuss regional, scale and disciplinary-driven per-
spectives on the defining factors of vulnerable coastal systems. However, the context and
challenge of this volume is to identify opportunities and barriers towards applying this
2 Loraine McFadden et al.
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knowledge in order to improve the basic status of coastal environments. In considering the
effectiveness of the vulnerability concept as a tool for coastal zone management, it will
seek to develop a series of cross-cutting (integrated) perspectives for developing sustain-
able coastal management strategies.
Themes within this Volume
Approaches to understanding the concept of vulnerability are contested. Recent advances in
coupled social and ecological models of vulnerable systems (e.g. Walker et al., 2004; Adger
et al., 2005) move towards resolving elements of conflict; while specific research communi-
ties (e.g., the climate change community) provide a broad-based platform from which com-
monalities of understanding and approaches can be nurtured. However differences remain in
the semantics of vulnerability, and in the conceptual framework or world-views, which
underpin the use of specific language in describing and modelling vulnerability. In turn, these
differences in our understanding of vulnerability and vulnerability analysis result in a dis-
parity in our responses to managing the coastal system. From a basic perspective, the coast
is a contested environment, with many conflicts of interest surrounding the use of resources
within coastal systems (Green Penning-Rowsell, 1999). It follows that a value-loaded con-
cept such as ‘vulnerability’ may be expected to reflect a bias towards a particular set(s) of
ideals: it is not surprising that debate has surrounded the concept.
This volume does not attempt to resolve differences in approaches to the vulnerability term
and each chapter is framed within the particular contributor’s conceptualisation of vulnerabil-
ity. This means that primary questions relating to the definition of vulnerability, and the met-
rics and approaches used to understand vulnerable environments and communities, have been
left to the discretion of the contributors. Such a free-style approach to conceptualising vul-
nerability results in a high potential for complexity and diversity within the work, which raises
a number of challenges for this volume. In describing a particular approach to ‘vulnerability’,
the conceptual model could easily become the primary focus of the contributions. A cloud of
concepts and conceptual frameworks can result in the real view of opportunities and barriers
to the effective use of vulnerability being obscured. It is also more difficult to develop cross-
cutting perspectives of opportunities and barriers for vulnerability reduction, on different and
perhaps quite divergent models of understanding and analysing vulnerable environments.
With such challenges in view, this edited volume is loosely structured around a series
of themes, based in the first instance on a simple relation:
Vulnerability = Impacts minus effects of Adaptation (V = I ⫺ A)
Unpicking this simple ‘equation’ leads to the following three themes:
Theme 1: Managing vulnerability through impact and adaptation responses.
Theme 2: Reducing impact on vulnerable coastal systems.
Theme 3: Enhancing adaptation in coastal environments and communities.
As already stressed, this framework is based within the context of decision making for
coastal management, so that a fourth theme, that of the management of coastal environments,
underpins and surrounds the approaches and discussions within the volume. ‘Differences’ in
system behaviour and strategies for coastal management provides a fifth and final theme.
Setting the Parameters 3
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In essence, the themes represent a series of pegs, on which each contributor can ‘hang’
their respective conceptualisations of vulnerability: thereby developing some consistency
in approach without compromising important elements of diversity in the work. Figure 1.1
summarises the simple model of vulnerability on which this volume is structured. It high-
lights a series of concepts that are commonly associated with vulnerability assessments,
and the basic relation between such concepts and the themed approached of this volume.
Reducing the analysis to a series of building blocks (or themes) seeks to provide a com-
mon foundation through which diverse associations of concepts can be rooted. The model
gives a consistent focus for developing ideas and methods for reducing the vulnerability
of coastal systems to external forcing.
While this reductionist approach has obvious limitations, the common-denominating
framework (i.e. V = I ⫺ A) enables basic similarities and differences across space and
through time to be identified: both in the nature of vulnerable environments and, impor-
tantly, in the use of vulnerability analysis to improve the basic status of coastal systems.
The aim of this volume is to move towards resolving some of the complexities in reduc-
ing the vulnerability of coastal systems, examining the contribution of the analysis to the
integrated management of coastal systems. The themes therefore reflect a simplified, first-
order view of a vulnerable coastal environment. However, they are grounded within the
context of contemporary literature and within the perspective of developing guidelines and
lessons to improve the sustainable management of complex coastal systems.
Theme 1: Managing Vulnerability through Impact and Adaptation Responses
There are two broad-based concepts that are most often used to describe the vulnerability
of coastal systems. In the first instance is some idea of ‘harm’ (e.g. exposure, susceptibil-
ity, fragility) and on the other hand, recovery from the effects of external forcing (e.g. adap-
tive capacity, resilience and coping capacity). The framework of this volume (V ⫽ I ⫺ A)
considers ‘harm’ within the context of ‘impact’ and ‘recovery’ in a broad-based theme of
‘adaptation’. The basic premise on which the volume has been developed is that vulnerabil-
ity can be reduced through: (1) decreasing the impact of external forcing on coastal systems
Figure 1.1: Understanding vulnerability for coastal management: a simplified approach.
Ch001.qxd 11/11/2006 12:01 PM Page 4

and/or (2) enhancing the adaptive capacity of coastal environments and communities. The
coastal zone management literature does not detail a conclusive relationship between vul-
nerability and these two basic responses of coastal systems. Rather, there is a measure of
variability in approaches and relationships between the terms. Resilience, for example, has
been considered a loose synonym for vulnerability, or vulnerability interchanged with the
idea of ‘harm’ and so that adaptation is a direct response to increased vulnerability rather
than increased impact on the system (Cutter, 2001; Vogel O’Brien, 2004).
This volume considers the vulnerability of the coast as a general statement of the actual
impact of a given external force on the coastal system, minus the effects of adaptation in
response to that forcing within the total coastal environment. Based on this definition, vul-
nerability is an expression of the potential residual effects on a coastal society or environ-
ment given a particular hazard event, i.e. impacts over and above the effects of adaptation
to the hazard. In turn, a vulnerable coastal system may be considered one in which the
impacts of an external forcing event exceed mitigation or recovery that is reflected through
the actual adaptation policies for the region. The emphasis of this perspective is the end-
state of a system, after a (or a series of) impact and response cycle(s) to a hazardous event.
The vulnerability of the coast is most often considered in such a context, with vulnerability
assessments building an understanding of both present and future combinations of physi-
cal or socio-economic attributes, which define critical thresholds of impact and effective
limits of adaptation responses.
However, in addition to the actual vulnerability of a coastal environment or community,
it may be also possible to explore the potential vulnerability of the system. This perspec-
tive of vulnerability does not focus on the state of the physical or social environment i.e.
those attributes of the physical and socio-economic systems that indicate critical limits of
impact or adaptation. Rather, it explores processes which increase the likely impact of
external forcing on the system and those which enhance the ability of the system to miti-
gate or absorb impacts on the coast. Such processes identify future changes to the actual
thresholds of impact and response of a coastal system and therefore define potential vul-
nerability of the coast (McFadden, this volume).
Reducing the vulnerability of coastal environments and communities within this vol-
ume can relate to managing both the characteristics, and the underlying processes of
coastal systems, to affect the impact of hazard forcing on coasts and the recovery of the
coastal system.
Theme 2: Reducing Impact on Vulnerable Coastal Systems
The concept of vulnerability encapsulates the idea of a negative trend within the coastal
zone, in the behaviour or the value of the coastal system. Therefore some notion of
‘impact’ is central to understanding the term. In managing the coast to reduce the vulner-
ability of coastal systems, a useful focus for ‘impact’ is the functionality of the coast:
impact or harm may be summarised as some loss in the physical or socio-economic func-
tional value of a coastal zone (McFadden, this volume). Given such an approach, attempts
to decrease the vulnerability of coastal environments and communities would centre on
diminishing the actual loss, or the potential towards a loss, of the functional value of the
coast which may result from external forcing on the system. Actual impacts on the system
reflect changes in the physical and socio-economic structure of the coast, e.g. the loss of
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coastal bluff by the order of x metres, or the inundation of x amount of homes. When
exploring the potential towards impact, strategies for vulnerability reduction would focus
on managing processes which increase the effects of hazard forcing on the system,
e.g. physical processes which change (and de-stabilise) the composition of a soft coastline.
By developing a broad-based approach to this ‘negative’ component of the vulnerability
equation, a range of perspectives on modelling the term can be accommodated (Figure 1.1).
Some approaches to understanding impact, for example, particularly those focused on
modelling the impacts of climate change, have centred on the physical susceptibility of
coastal systems (Klein Nicholls, 1999; Thieler Hammar-Klose, 1999, 2000;
McCarthy et al., 2001; Nicholls Hoozemans, 2005). A high proportion of the vulnera-
bility literature stresses the importance of modelling exposure to a specified hazard or
range of hazard, where exposure examines the change of forcing and what is affected (e.g.
Schiller et al., 2001; Smith et al., 2003; Turner et al., 2003; Schröter et al., 2004; Vogel
O’Brien, 2004; Adger et al., 2005). An exposure unit may reflect, for example, a region,
population groups, community, ecosystem and country. However, it is a largely socially
constructed phenomenon depending on where populations choose to live (or are forced to
live), and how they construct their communities and livelihoods (Adger et al., 2004). The
precise relationship between vulnerability and exposure is debated: is exposure a metric or
a measure of vulnerability? Another dimension from the hazard-based literature is the rela-
tionship of fragility to vulnerability analysis. Fragility is a multi-dimensional function that
reflects the fraction of the replacement value of an asset that is damaged when exposed to
a specific hazard (Davidson et al., 2003; Chang, 2005). Through the use of ‘impact’ as a
focal point for this discussion, similarities and differences in lessons for vulnerability
reduction may be explored.
Characteristics of impacted coastal environments and communities, and processes
that increase the effect of hazard forcing on coastal systems, will be explored in various
levels of detail and complexity within this volume. An underlying theme is that some
measure of the potential of the physical and socio-economic coastal sub-systems to be
affected by the external forcing agent is central to understanding the vulnerability of the
system. However, this impact, particularly within the physical environment, may be rel-
atively fixed by broad-scale temporal and spatial processes. This means that applying
such knowledge to the development of better management strategies for the coastal zone
is challenging.
Theme 3: Enhancing Adaptation in Coastal Environments and Communities
Adaptation has become a strong element of vulnerability analysis. This reflects moves
from general definitions and approaches to understanding vulnerability, towards opera-
tionalising the term for vulnerability assessments (e.g. Klein et al., 2001; Schiller et al.,
2001; Yohe Tol, 2002; Smith et al., 2003; Turner et al., 2003; Nicholls Lowe, 2004;
Vogel O’Brien, 2004; Walker et al., 2004; Adger et al., 2005; Tol et al., in press).
Actual adaptation measures are based on combinations of attributes that define the ranges
across which a system can absorb external stress and perturbation. A potential adaptive
response within a coastal system may be reflected through processes that enhance the
resilience or adaptive capacity of a coastal system. The range of options for absorbing
Ch001.qxd 11/11/2006 12:01 PM Page 6

external forcing is often more extensive than those available to reduce the impacts of
forcing on the coast. This means it is the adaptation response of coastal environments and
communities that most often achieves the greatest returns in reducing the vulnerability of
the system. As such, it is the ‘positive face’ of vulnerability analysis. However while
adaptation is the general focus of a large number of vulnerability assessments, it is still
relatively poorly understood from a strategic perspective, such as that relevant to coastal
management.
While there is a strong expression in literature towards the role of adapting to external
forcing, the relationship between the adaptive response of coastal systems and the vulnera-
bility of the coast is relatively less distinct. As with the impact component of vulnerability, a
large proportion of the discussion focuses on adaptation as a metric of vulnerability analysis.
Some approaches consider adaptation obverse to vulnerability i.e. adaptation and vulnera-
bility are two faces of the same coin. The adaptation-based literature is also divided in terms
of the specific concepts used to describe the ‘recovery’ response (Figure 1.1). Many studies,
for example, focus on the adaptive capacity of coastal systems. A range of definitions of
adaptive capacity exist (McCarthy et al., 2001; Yohe Tol, 2002; Smith et al., 2003; Adger
et al., 2004), however it is generally described as the ability or capacity of a system to mod-
ify or change its characteristics or behaviour, so as to cope better with existing or anticipated
external stress. Adaptive capacity is frequently cited in the context of human systems, as a
societal-based concept describing active management of coastal systems. On the other hand,
the concept of resilience has entered vulnerability analysis from ecology and largely main-
tains its association with the capacity of the ecological system to self-organise, although this
is also often linked with societal response (Berkes, Colding, Folke, 2003; Tompkins
Adger, 2004; Walker et al., 2004). The concept has evolved considerably since Hollings’
(1973) seminal paper, however it retains much of its basic emphasis as the capacity of a sys-
tem to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change so as essentially to retain
the same function, structure and identity. A further dimension of adaptation is that of coping
capacity: referring to a location-, group- and time-specific adaptive response of a system
(Smith et al., 2003; Vogel O’Brien, 2004).
This volume considers adaptation within the coastal zone in its widest sense and seeks
to examine directions and challenges for enhancing the adaptation response across the
coastal system. This means it incorporates perspectives on the capacity of both physical
and socio-economic systems to absorb pressures towards adaptive change, reducing the vul-
nerability of the total coastal region.
Theme 4: Managing Coastal Systems
The aim of this volume is to explore vulnerability analysis as a tool for managing complex
coastal systems, examining strategies that reduce the vulnerability of environments and
communities. It is therefore important that the discussions are applied to the context of
developing better strategies in decision making for coastal resource use and management.
The effectiveness of vulnerability analysis for coastal management relates to increas-
ing scientific knowledge of total system behaviour of the coast (both physical and socio-
economic systems) at both small–medium temporal (i.e. days — decades) and spatial
Ch001.qxd 11/11/2006 12:01 PM Page 7

scales (i.e. local — regional). However, the utility of vulnerability analysis as a tool for
coastal management also depends on the effectiveness by which scientific understanding
can be translated to management plans and strategies, improving the status of the coast
(McFadden, this volume). This volume seeks to move the discussion on vulnerability
analysis towards identifying a range of options and potential policy decisions for manag-
ing vulnerable and complex coastal systems to ensure a more sustainable coastal future.
Coastal Zone Management (CZM) is generally considered to reflect the definition, evo-
lution, implementation and coordination of scientific procedures within the coastal zone to
ensure its sustainable use and development (IPCC CZMS, 1992; Cicin-Sain, 1993; Kay
Alder, 1999). The complex, multi-dimensional behaviour of coastal systems to a wide range
of stresses and perturbations requires that a strategic approach to managing the coastal envi-
ronment is developed. The majority of the world’s coasts, for example, have a legacy (and a
future) of human occupation and are therefore the front line between their static socio-
economic constructs and dynamic, physical coastal systems (Carter, 1988; Hansom, 1988).
Continual flooding, coastal erosion and loss of livelihood of coastal communities demonstrate
the pressures faced by this unstable environment, and these problems appear to be increasing
in intensity given accelerated global climate change. However, in addition to the challenges
of understanding and modelling the dynamics of the physical environment, complex social
processes underpin cultural perspectives of living at and managing the coast (de Groot
Orford, 2000). The discussion within this volume explores the challenges and opportunities
in reducing the conflict of interests that define vulnerable coastal environments.
The specific focus of this volume is on integrated approaches to coastal management.
As a result of a legacy of largely unsuccessful coastal management schemes, combined
with increased pressures on the coastal zone, the 21st century has witnessed CZM becom-
ing replaced by Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). Integrated management is
characterised by a series of attributes, all of which are generally accepted within coastal
management literature (e.g. Sorensen McCreary, 1990; Vallega, 1993, 1999; Bower
Turner, 1997; Sorensen, 1997; European Commission, 1999; Kay Alder, 1999; de Groot
Orford, 2000). These attributes can be considered as a function of one of two basic com-
ponents of integration: (1) a perspective by which a coastal system is structured in an
interdisciplinary way and (2) a commonality of purpose and approach between all stake-
holders (e.g., scientists, policy makers, coastal managers and the public) within the coastal
zone. Successful integration is based on the development of coastal management strategies
from an agreement building process, which is defined by stakeholders and is underpinned
by knowledge on the integrated behaviour of the coastal system (McFadden, in press).
The following chapters examine the degree to which an understanding of the vulnerabil-
ities of coastal systems can move coastal management towards effective integrated manage-
ment of coastal systems. The volume explores the range of dimensions characterising total
system behaviour and seeks to identify cross-cutting perspectives, directions and policy deci-
sions for managing vulnerable physical coastal environments and coastal communities.
Theme 5: ‘Differences’
Cross-cutting themes and dimensions of applied coastal vulnerability analysis are important
in developing strategic approaches to managing coastal zones. However, the complexity of
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processes, responses and drivers of change in coastal systems leads to a wide range of dif-
ferential behaviour within and between particular coastal zones. This means that detailed
recommendations for vulnerability reduction need to be context explicit. A high proportion
of vulnerability literature stresses the necessity of developing specific context-based
assessments of vulnerability (Kelly Adger, 2000; Green, 2003; Turner et al., 2003;
Adger et al., 2004; Vogel O’Brien, 2004; Walker et al., 2004).
In the respect ‘differences’ are an important dimension of this volume. This theme
refers to the range of variability within and between physical and social system behaviour,
across spatial and temporal scales, and to the range of hazards to which coastal zones are
subjected: ultimately reflecting a range of context-specific directions for reducing the vul-
nerability of particular coastal systems. Identifying key differences in system response
allows specific components of a coastal zone to be targeted within a management context.
A clearer understanding of the differences in the behaviour of vulnerable coastal environ-
ments may also improve the effectiveness of more strategic approaches in reducing coastal
vulnerability — identifying the limitations and opportunities of broad-scale management
strategies.
A Simple Route Map through this Volume
Exploring the Content of the Volume
In examining vulnerability as a tool for managing complex coastal systems, this volume
draws from a wide range of perspectives and contexts of coastal environments. The book
can essentially be divided into two constituent parts. The theoretical framing of the vulner-
ability term in the context of CZM is examined within (though not restricted to) the fol-
lowing four chapters, which together comprise a concepts-based section. McFadden
(Chapter 2) argues that a system-based approach, focused on the dynamics of coastal behav-
iour, is of central importance in understanding vulnerability in complex coastal systems.
The chapter suggests that the integrated functionality of the coast is a useful system-based
framework for coastal management. Green and Penning-Rowsell (Chapter 3) and
Woodroffe (Chapter 4) follow a dynamic approach to vulnerability with perspectives from
social and physical sciences, respectively. Green and Penning-Rowsell suggest that the
process of choice is central to defining vulnerability and that the usefulness of vulnerabil-
ity analysis to coastal zone management is dependent on social constructions of the term.
Woodroffe focuses on patterns, directions and rates of natural change that both coastal land-
forms and habitats undergo, stressing that the successful management of vulnerable coast-
lines depends on understanding natural processes of change. Hinkel and Klein (Chapter 5)
use the example of a specific integrated-based project to consider the challenges of devel-
oping a domain-independent framework of vulnerability analysis. The chapter considers the
process of communicating and integrating knowledge within vulnerability analysis.
The emphasis within the remainder of the book is the real-time application of ideas and
approaches to managing vulnerable coastal environments. This ‘applied’ section begins with
a consideration of the Ebro Delta as an example of a particularly vulnerable coastal system.
Sanchez-Archilla et al. (Chapter 6) discuss a framework with which to assess deltaic
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vulnerability, examining the usefulness of vulnerability analysis as a tool for managing
such environments. The focus then moves to a sociological perspective as Tunstall and
Tapsell (Chapter 7) consider the challenge of strategic coastal management in the context
of local community needs and perspectives of a functional coastal system. Using a coastal
village in England as a case study, the chapter examines the complexities of managing the
physical coastal environment against high levels of social vulnerability. Remaining within
the theme of local communities Handmer et al. (Chapter 8) consider vulnerability in the
context of local resilience in Phuket to the Indian Ocean tsunami. The chapter considers
the gap between the rhetoric, and the reality, of securing local livelihoods as a critical com-
ponent of management strategies towards reducing vulnerability.
In contrast to local sustainable livelihoods within developing regions, Klaus et al.
(Chapter 9) discuss the capacities for adapting to coastal hazards within the New York City
Metropolitan Area. The chapter gives some perspective of the challenges in translating vul-
nerability assessments of large vulnerable mega-cities into a coherent and sustainable
approach to managing the population and resources of the region. Continuing at a regional
scale, the focus of Winchester et al. (Chapter 10) is coastal Andhra Pradesh, India.
Examining community resilience in a highly economically disadvantaged region, the dis-
cussion underlines the impact of relative affluence on adaptive capacity. Two chapters are
based within a national context, giving a broad-scaled perspective on managing vulnerable
coastal environments. Orford and his colleagues (Chapter 11) centre on approaches to
enhancing sediment retention, and revitalising sediment pathways, as critical in reducing
the physical vulnerability of the UK coastline. In a case study of the smaller Pacific Islands,
Nunn and Mimura (Chapter 12) discuss coastal vulnerability within the wider integrated
context of environmental and socio-economic change. In the final instance, Nicholls et al.
(Chapter 13) reflect on international to global-scaled assessments of coastal vulnerabilities.
Nicholls and his colleagues suggest that while coastal disasters are inevitable and adaptive
responses complex, continuing progress on aggregated metrics of coastal vulnerability is
making the policy choices on managing vulnerable environments somewhat clearer.
Examining the Dimensions of Coastal Behaviour
As the chapters explore opportunities and barriers to reducing the vulnerability of specific
physical coastal environments and coastal communities, they address a range of dimensions
in coastal behaviour.
One important dimension explored within this volume is thus that of spatial scale. A
series of contributors examine local-scale characteristics, processes and approaches for
reducing vulnerabilities (Sanchez-Archilla et al., Tunstall Tapsell, and Handmer et al.)
However, the volume extends this analysis through space to focus on broader-scale
approaches to understanding the coast, from regional (Jacobs et al., Winchester et al.)
through to national (Orford et al., Nunn Mimura) and international perspectives on the
vulnerability of coastal environments (Nicholls et al.). The variability of physical and socio-
economic system response through time is also explored (McFadden and Woodroffe), with
application for a low frequency, high magnitude event such as the Indian Ocean tsunami
(Handmer et al.) and the long-term process of sea-level rise (Klaus et al., Nicholls et al.),
through the day-to-day sustainable livelihoods of rural Indian farmers (Winchester et al.).
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The contributions to this volume reflect specialist knowledge from a range of disciplines,
including geomorphology (e.g., Woodroffe), coastal engineering (e.g., Sanchez-Arcilla et al.),
sociology (e.g., Tunstall Tapsell) and economics (e.g., Handmer et al.). Hence, a further
dimension underpinning the volume is the multi-disciplinary approach to understanding and
managing coastal environments. The specific coastal zones referenced throughout the volume
represent a wide range of physical coastal types (e.g. delta, beach, cliffed coasts and coral
reefs) and socio-economic settings (e.g. mega-city, island communities, small village),
reflecting different conflicts of interest in coastal resource use and management.
Each key theme of vulnerability is explored in developed countries, i.e. the UK (Orford
et al. and Tunstall Tapsell), Spain (Sanchez-Arcilla et al.) and the US (Jacobs et al.) and
in developing areas, i.e. India (Winchester et al.), Thailand (Handmer et al.) and the
Pacific Islands (Nunn Mimura). This means that broad-scale differences in issues, con-
cerns and approaches to vulnerable coastal environments between these world-views can
be examined.
The volume is structured to promote a broad view of vulnerable coastal environments.
But specific perspectives on vulnerable environments and communities are also an impor-
tant component of the book. However, the comprehensive framework of the volume gives
important broad-scale perspectives on lessons and challenges for enhancing the utility of
vulnerability analysis as a tool for managing coastal systems.
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Chapter 2
Vulnerability Analysis: A Useful Concept for
Coastal Management?
Loraine McFadden
Introduction
The concept of ‘vulnerability’ in coastal zone management (CZM) is far from new, and vul-
nerability assessments are frequently advocated in the development of risk-based coastal man-
agement programmes. International recognition of the concept is most clearly demonstrated
in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Common Methodology for the
Assessment of Vulnerability to sea-level rise (The Common Methodology) (IPCC CZMS,
1992). A plethora of sub-national and national vulnerability assessments have subsequently
followed the IPCC approach to assessing vulnerability (Nicholls, 1995; McFadden, 2001).
As highlighted in Chapter 1, there have been high levels of concern about the problems
that lead to vulnerable coastlines and about finding methods of assessing this vulnerabil-
ity within the coastal zone. This concern is based on the fact that coastal systems still
experience intensive and sustained pressures from a range of driving forces and that these
‘drivers’ are likely to be operative for many decades to come (e.g. Evans et al., 2006).
However, more limited attempts have been made to examine the effectiveness of the
vulnerability concept for CZM, and how the application of vulnerability analysis can
contribute to management policies and strategies within the coastal zone. Indeed it is not
clear that tools such as vulnerability analysis are conceived and defined in an effective
manner for understanding and managing complex coastal systems. This chapter focuses on
these issues surrounding the conceptualisation of vulnerability and the usefulness of the
concept in coastal management.
Many studies that have cited the vulnerability concept have not defined either the notion
of vulnerability or a vulnerable environment (e.g. Cooper McLaughlin, 1998; Capobianco
et al., 1999; Bryan et al., 2001; Hammar-Klose et al., 2003, 2004). There is also disparity
when considering the components that comprise an analysis of vulnerability within the
coastal zone. Some authors have focused on a combination of the susceptibility of a coastal
system minus the resilience of the zone as a reflection of vulnerability within the region
Managing Coastal Vulnerability
Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier Ltd.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISBN: 0-08-044703-1
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(e.g. Sánchez-Arcilla et al., 1998; de la Vega Leinert Nicholls, 2001). Past studies have
used the concepts of risk and vulnerability interchangeably (e.g. Gornitz, 1990; Alexander,
1992), while the terms sensitivity and vulnerability have also been used in an interchange-
able manner (Pethick Crooks, 2000). This illuminates the ad hoc legacy of vulnerability
analysis that has been delivered via CZM. It also suggests a lack of scientific rigour in the
way the vulnerability concept has been cited and applied in coastal management. Recent
developments in vulnerability analysis, particularly within the global environmental change
community, have focused on the importance of adaptive capacity. In this instance, vulner-
ability is considered some function of the exposure, sensitivity and the adaptive capacity
(or coping dimension) of a system (Adger, 2000; Smith et al., 2003; Vogel O’Brien,
2004; Adger and Vincent, 2005; Yohe et al., 2006).
It has also been argued that concepts, theories and philosophies do not often lend them-
selves to scientific definition and as well as proving difficult, it may actually be disadvan-
tageous to seek a generic definition for the vulnerability term (Green Penning-Rowsell,
this volume). However, it is important that issues surrounding semantics do not over-
shadow the clear development of vulnerability analysis as an approach for managing the
coastal zone. For example, without a general standard of good practice in the use of the
vulnerability concept, integration across vulnerability analyses becomes difficult, if not
impossible, to achieve. A poorly defined analysis leads to both inefficiency and redun-
dancy of the approach as a coastal management tool (Hinkel Klein, this volume).
This chapter will suggest a series of guiding principles for the definition and use of the
vulnerability concept for CZM. As identified in chapter one, CZM is considered to reflect
the definition, evolution, implementation and coordination of scientific procedures within
the coastal zone to ensure its sustainable use and development (Kay and Alder, 1999). There
are important differences across space and through time in the vulnerability of a coastal sys-
tem: the guidelines seek to reflect basic integrating characteristics which can apply across
a wide range of physical and social environments. Emerging from a review of conceptual
models within vulnerability literature, the principles aim to increasing the usefulness of vul-
nerability analysis as a tool for understanding the problems associated with managing
coastal change. They present the basic argument that vulnerability analysis should be con-
sidered as a comprehensive process-based assessment, embracing the entire coastal system.
The chapter focuses on the potential value of a vulnerability approach to the long-term
development and management of coastal systems and how, within a systems framework,
vulnerability analysis could become a more useful tool for preserving and adapting key
functionalities of the coastal system.
Principles for Conceptualising Vulnerability within CZM
Increasing the sustainability of development and management within the coastal zone
often relates to: (1) enhancing our understanding and characterisation of physical and
socio-economic processes within the coastal system and (2) providing effective means by
which this understanding can be translated to policy-making within a region. The idea of
‘usefulness’ within this chapter is characterised on the basis of these two simple parame-
ters. The principles provide a general framework in which complex scientific knowledge
16 Loraine McFadden
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on coastal behaviour can be combined to give an integrated perspective on coastal change:
ultimately explored within this chapter in the expression of the ‘functionality’ of the sys-
tem. Understanding change, particularly change in the provision of goods and services
from a coastal system, is a primary issue for coastal management. It is therefore an impor-
tant vehicle for sustainable decision-making on resource use and coastal development.
Vulnerability as a Trans-Disciplinary Perspective on Coastal Change
A foremost principle in the use of ‘vulnerability’ for coastal management is that it should
integrate physical and socio-economic ideals, to become a trans-disciplinary concept.
Many vulnerability studies within the coastal zone have been based on a long heritage of
traditional physical or social scientific viewpoints on the nature of change and the value of
resources.
From the social science perspective, while considered a multi-dimensional concept, vul-
nerability is primarily conditioned by past, current and future populations and settlement
patterns combined with the aggregated and per capita economic wealth of the region. In
such approaches, the biophysical component, frequently considered as the exposure or
measure of the hazard, is formally outside the definition of the term (Kelly Adger, 2000).
Governance by economic-based decision making has also been a specific feature of vul-
nerability analysis. The IPCC’s common methodology vulnerability assessment, for exam-
ple, is reduced in the final stage to a monetary value (McCarthy et al., 2001). A historical
assessment shows that this economic approach to decision-making has dominated coastal
management in general (Orford et al., this volume).
In engineering science, the concept of vulnerability is mostly linked to physical objects,
e.g. houses, vehicles, so that in quantitative terms vulnerability is associated with the
extent of structural harm or damage that results from an event (de Bruijn et al., in press).
To the engineer, vulnerability analysis helps to promote structural integrity by addressing
the way in which a structure is connected together. However, for the ecologist, vulnerabil-
ity is related to biodiversity and functional redundancy. The concept of resilience in
particular has entered vulnerability analysis from this subject area; introduced to empha-
sise the capacity of an ecosystem to bounce back to a reference state after disturbance, or
maintain certain structures and functions despite increased forcing on the ecosystem
(Holling, 1973; Turner et al., 2003).
Similarly, from a geomorphological perspective, vulnerability analysis is strongly
related to relaxation periods; reflecting the time taken for a system to adjust morphologi-
cally to a change in energy input and regain a form of equilibrium. Examining the balance
between the relaxation times and the return period of disturbing events determines the
degree to which a system requires intervention before a loss of equilibrium occurs, and a
new state is achieved (Pethick Crooks, 2000). This ratio is considered to provide a crit-
ical measure of the manner in which coastal landforms respond to imposed changes, which
determines the vulnerability of the coastal system. To use the vulnerability concept to its
greatest potential in decision making, these different approaches need to be integrated into
a common framework, achieving a more comprehensive assessment.
The need for inter- and trans-disciplinary research is becoming widely acknowledged
and considerable discussions have surrounded multi-dimensional approaches to assessing
Vulnerability Analysis 17
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vulnerability of coastal zones. This discussion has focussed on exploring the linkages
between ecosystems and human societies: modelling vulnerability in the context of cou-
pled socio-economic and ecological systems and the capacity of these systems to adapt to
uncertainty and regenerate after disasters (Adger, 2000; Turner et al., 2003; Vogel
O’Brien, 2004; Walker et al., 2004; Adger et al., 2005).
Such discussions play an important role in defining the sustainability of coastal systems;
however a central point must be raised: they reflect only two dimensions of the coastal land-
scape (i.e. societal and ecological systems). There has been limited debate as to how the vul-
nerability concept can be applied in the context of the total coastal system. Important
questions such as: (1) the role of the physical state of the coastal zone as reflected in the mor-
phological and sediment dynamics of the system i.e. the geomorphology of the coast
(Woodroffe, this volume) and (2) the nature of interactions between these dynamics and
socio-economic/ecological models have been inadequately (if at all) addressed. The fact
remains that truly integrated approaches to modelling the problems and solutions to coastal
change are still relatively few in number.
Understanding the vulnerability of the coast from such an integrated perspective is crit-
ical for CZM. The social construction of risk means that humankind will most frequently
interpret a vulnerable environment when there is a threat to their socio-economic position
through either direct or indirect loss. Thus, ultimately, it is ‘memory’ within the socio-eco-
nomic system that drives the impact which humans have on the coastal zone. This memory
can be defined as the time taken for the socio-economic system to adjust to an external forc-
ing event. However, if memory within the physical system – the time taken for the ecolog-
ical or geomorphological system to adapt to change and regain equilibrium – continually
exceeds socio-economic memory, then society essentially has no gauge as to the forcing
impact or the ‘true’ vulnerability of the system (Figure 2.1).
If coastal vulnerability is constructed in a trans-disciplinary manner, as a potential for
change that evaluates the response of social systems conterminously with the range of
physical responses of coastal processes (e.g. ecological and geomorphic) then short-term
decisions can become more sustainable in the long-term development of the coast.
Beyond the Context of Climate Forcing: the ‘Drivers’ of Coastal Change
To be an effective basis for policy making in coastal management, vulnerability analysis
must assess the impacts on coastal systems of a range of forcing agents. The relevant lit-
erature shows that a large majority of coastal vulnerability studies are characterised by
their sole application to sea-level rise and the related effects of climate change upon the
coastal zone (e.g. Nicholls Nimura, 1998; Kelly Adger, 2000; Bryan et al., 2001;
Smith et al., 2003; Li et al., 2004; Pruszak Zawadzka, 2005). This may be related to the
centrality of the IPCC ‘Common Methodology’, where the overriding problem was
viewed as sea-level rise and its impact on coastal resources. However, the value of the con-
cept must be realised beyond the context of climate change. Although a major forcing
agent within the coastal zone that must be accountable within models of vulnerability,
climatic variation per se is not the sole driver of change experienced within the coastal
zone. A range of drivers related to anthropogenic influences must also be considered if a
18 Loraine McFadden
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comprehensive tool is to be developed that is of significant value to CZM. Many of the
world’s open coasts and estuaries, for example, are extensively developed with high lev-
els of population, property and infrastructure resulting in development and regeneration
pressures being key drivers of change.
Recognising the importance of modelling coastal system response to a range of physi-
cal and socio-economic drivers is not a new phenomenon (de la Vega Leinert Nicholls,
2001; McFadden, 2001). The Foresight Flooding and Coastal Defence Project run by the
UK Office of Science and Technology is a key example of progress towards addressing
this issue (Evans et al., 2004). Producing a long-term vision for the future of flood and
coastal defence in the UK, the project focused on a wide range of drivers that may change
the state of the flooding system; these included climate change, urbanisation, changing
agricultural practices and rural land management.
The UK Foresight Project is an important example of a comprehensive assessment
incorporating the context and impacts of change within fluvial and coastal systems.
However, the bulk of vulnerability assessments for CZM do not facilitate such a broad-
scale approach to understanding the drivers of coastal behaviour. Developing frameworks
and approaches to modelling vulnerability which are embedded within a comprehensive
analysis of the drivers of change within the system must become a goal for the CZM
community.
Vulnerability Analysis 19
Figure 2.1: Differences in recovery time from external forcing between physical and social systems.
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Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content

strong on him during a period of manly piety through which he had passed
in the nursery. So I kept Mr. Vickery to myself, hugging him in secret, and I
was content to ask no questions about those eagle-feathered picnics of the
past. It is much for us if we can catch but a reflection of the light of the
great days; it is enough, even though their depth is screened from us by fifty
commoner years. Mr. Vickery shall not be exposed to the daunting chill of
Deering’s irony if I can help it.
Such was my feeling; for it seemed clear to me that Mr. Vickery had
lived on incautiously till he faced a critical age, knowing nothing of its
deadly arts, needing protection. And thereupon I noticed that he was now
conducting the Marchesa and the well-fed man on a tour round the studio,
pausing at one after another of the pictures; and I began to perceive,
following and listening, how much he required my kindly care while he was
flanked by the great ones of the earth. The well-fed man was Lord
Veneering (or something to that effect), and he explained to the Marchesa
that he was “forming a gallery” at a little place he had bought in the
country, and that Mr. Vickery had very obligingly “aided him with expert
advice”; and the Marchesa said pleasantly that one couldn’t do better than
follow Mr. Vickery’s taste, because he possessed, what is nowadays so rare,
the spirit of the great masters. “This,” said Mr. Vickery, indicating one of
the canvases, “is a little smudge of paint that pleases me as well as anything
I ever did—which may seem odd to a layman, for it’s purely a painter’s
picture. Very bad policy, in these days, to spend time over work like that;
but we paint for each other, we of the trade—we understand.” The velvet
breeches and the sheepskin seemed to me to occupy their usual places in
this picture, but his lordship was particularly struck by their “high relief.”
Mr. Vickery didn’t hear, he was lost for a moment in contemplation. “Yes,”
he said, “a painter would understand what I’ve tried to say there.” Our
carping age, represented by the Marchesa and Lord Veneering, reverently
gazed. Mrs. Vickery, still over her papers at the table, glanced up at her
husband with a look that understood more, I incline to think, than many
painters. Certainly he was well muffled against our chilling and doubting
day; but I wonder how he would have shielded his complacency if his wife
had spoken her mind. However she was much too deep in her entries and
reckonings for a wild idea like that.

I
XV. VIA DELLE BOTTEGHE OSCURE
DON’T pledge myself to the actual street, twisting into the dark heart of
Rome, that led me to the great solemn palace of the Marchesa; but it
might have been the street of the Dark Shops, and I am apt to think it
may. It rambled vaguely into the gloom of all the ages and brought me to a
stand before an immense portone, the doorway of a family whose classic
name was inscribed in monumental lettering upon the lintel. What a name!
—it strode away across the long centuries, it wore the purple and the tiara,
it raised its shout in the bloody brawls of its faction, it disappeared into the
barbaric night; and again it emerged, plain to see, clear in the classic day,
the pride and the renown of the young republic. It seems, as you read it over
the doorway, to speak casually of Scipio, of Cincinnatus, friends of
yesterday, vanished so lately that there has barely been time to miss them;
and there may be a touch of parade in this, but who shall prove it?—and
anyhow it is a great and glorious name, nobly time-worn from its
immemorial journey, and it is written over the dark archway of the palace
for its only and sufficient decoration. You enter accordingly under the sign
of all the Roman history that you ever read, you cross the cloistered court
and mount the broad sweep of the staircase; and you find yourself in the
presence of a shy kind elderly Englishwoman, who appears to be still
wondering a little, after many years, how she came there.
The great old family, though it still held up its head with high dignity,
seemed to have outlived its fortune in the world. The Marchesa sat in the
midst of tattered and shredded relics of splendour, mildly boiling her kettle
over a spirit-lamp; and I don’t know how she came there, but in many years
she had never succeeded in wearing her faded state with confidence, and
she looked forlorn and patient, quietly accepting as a duty a condition of
things that she didn’t understand. She was too lady-like in her gentle
manners for the worldly pride of her majestic drawing-room; and whereas
its majesty held aloof more proudly than ever in impoverishment, she
herself was too humble to reject the little comfort and kindness of a hissing
kettle and a few sociable friends to tea. She tried to keep one hand upon
their homely support without losing touch at the same time with the palatial
scorn that watched her; and yet there was a disconnexion somehow, and she
hadn’t the power, the impudence, the adaptability, whatever it might be, to

make herself the link between the two. It may have been easier in the
Marchese’s lifetime (he was long departed); but now she had to carry her
prodigious name by herself, and the weight of the responsibility, and her
earnest sense of her duty, and her simple unassuming inefficiency—what
with it all there was much to make her look anxious and bewildered while
we sat, she and I, waiting for the kettle to boil. She was conscious of having
too much history on her hands; and yet she couldn’t in loyalty disown it and
settle comfortably down upon the style and culture of a plain quiet
Englishwoman.
The good Marchesa, she had somehow been left all alone in her august
establishment by deaths, accidents, dispositions that are obscure to me; but
the result of them was that she sat by herself in a corner of her mighty
palace, watched and terrorized from a distance by a crowd of her kindred,
offshoots in many degrees of her husband’s race—a needy Roman throng
possessing complicated claims on her, rights to bully her, chances to
torment her with conscientious scruples; and no doubt she had found that
her integrity and her perfect manners were a very poor match for the guile
of twenty centuries of Rome. “I’m expecting two English nephews of mine
this afternoon,” she said—“such dear boys”; and again, “My sister writes to
me from Devonshire to ask me if I can introduce them to a few nice
friends”: that was the tone of the Marchesa, and it wouldn’t seem that she
could offer much resistance to a band of hungry wily Romans. It was more,
however, than might be thought, for her back was straight and firm in her
duty at any cost to herself; only it all made a puzzling task, and there was
no one and nothing around to support her, to stand by her side with
encouragement and explanation, unless it was the companionable English
tea-cup in a corner of her huge old drawing-room. It will presently appear
how it is that I can read such a tale in her shy plainness, but much of it
would be legible even without what I afterwards learned. She was an
exceedingly simple soul.
The Principessa was simple too in her way, but it was not the same way.
“Why, Gertrude,” she cried, rustling down the long room from the doorway,
“don’t you look lovely to-day!” (It was the voice of New York.) “But that’s
nothing new—I don’t tell you what you don’t very well know—only it
strikes me fresh every time I see you!” And indeed the slight flush and
smile that began to spread upon the Marchesa’s brownish pallor did become
her, as she rose to greet her guest. “Every time I see you,” repeated the

Principessa, brightly glancing. “There’s something about you that’s
perfection, and I shall never know just what it is. Don’t you want to tell me
what it is? You needn’t be afraid—I shan’t ever be able to copy it. I watch
my little girl every day to see if she won’t catch a look of it somehow. ‘My
blessed child,’ I say to her, ‘for mercy’s sake try to look real—like the
Marchesa.’ But she doesn’t, she looks like her father—and you know the
sort of old Greek plaster-cast that he is, and all his family. I tell them they
can’t impose on me with their grand pretences; I’ve seen the real thing. I
never meant to marry Filippo, I meant to marry a man out of an English
novel—yes, the same novel that you come out of, Gertrude, whichever it is;
if I happen to find it I shall throw over Filippo and bolt—he’s well aware of
it. Don’t you want to tell me his name, Gertrude—the name of the hero in
your novel? Maltravers, Sir John Mauleverer, something like that; you
know I come here in the hope of meeting him. Some day he’ll turn up and I
shall fly into his arms; he’ll quite understand.”
The Principessa was perfect too in her way, but it was not the way of the
Marchesa. They sat side by side on a broad couch; and if the most eloquent
aspect of their contrast was on their lips and in their speech, there was
another almost as vivid that was plainly displayed at this moment on the
floor. The Marchesa’s long flat foot, with its well-worn shoe and the hole in
her grey stocking, rested on the floor beside the Principessa’s smart little
arch, with its dolphin-like plunge from heel to toe and its exquisite casing
of down-soft leather and filigree silk; it was a lucid contrast, the two of
them side by side. The Principessa was altogether small, compact, and
neater than I should have thought it possible for any one to be neat on our
rolling globe; but small and trim as she was she managed to rustle (to
rustle!—I revive the forgotten word in an age that no longer knows the
liquefaction of her clothes whenas she goes!)—she rustled in a manner that
the Marchesa, though with so much more height to sweep from, had never
dreamed of emulating. Rustling, it may be, depended more on depth of
purse than height of person; and indeed you couldn’t notice the tip of the
Principessa’s little finger, let alone the brilliant arch of her foot, without
observing that it cost more at every breath she drew than the whole angular
person of the Marchesa through the long quiet day. The Principessa was
consummately expensive—though with a finely pointed extremity of taste
that again the Marchesa had never caught a glimpse of; from the tilt of her
big hat the little Principessa was the spirit of expense to the click of her neat

heel. And yet, yet—what is it that she sees in the good incompetent
Marchesa, sees and admires and owns to be beyond imitation? Let me ask
—why yes, most appropriately, let me ask Miss Gilpin.
Miss Gilpin, however, is not so ready with information as Miss Gadge;
for Miss Gilpin in the palace of the Marchesa is considerably more pre-
occupied, less communicative, than she is in the lodging of the Clarksons.
Several other people had arrived or were arriving, and a side-glance of her
attention in passing was all she could spare for her awkward young friend.
She was very agile and easy herself, slipping among the company like a
bird of pretty plumage, moving so lightly that you would never suppose
such a fresh young thing to be a woman of professional learning and
experience. She lifts her wide clear gaze to the face of the person whom she
addresses, and it might be almost embarrassing in its frank admiration, but
her gay little well-worded remarks relieve it; and she never lingers, never
clings, she is drawn away to somebody else and flits on with a shining look
behind her; and so she weaves her dance-figure through the company, and it
brings her gradually to the side of the Principessa—at sight of whom she
gives a tiny jump, as the unexpected pleasure beams out in her childlike
eyes. The Principessa seemed to be less surprised, and Miss Gilpin got
rather a cool return for her sparkle of delight. The dance was arrested with
some abruptness; but there is this about Miss Gilpin, that she always has her
wits about her and can adapt herself to a sudden change of plan. Her eye
darted quickly forward to the Marchesa—and it was to the Marchesa after
all that she had a particular word to say, if the other lady would forgive her
for hastening on. One can safely count on the excellent Marchesa; yet it
must be confessed that life is complicated, and Miss Gilpin sank a little
wearily into an absorbing conversation with our hostess.
But what was the pretty plumage of Miss Gilpin, even at its most
unruffled, compared with the rich hues of the creature that now swooped
upon the modest gathering? Half flower and half bird—half peony and half
macaw—Madame de Baltasar was in our midst; and so much so that
nothing else for a while was in our midst—the central object was Madame
de Baltasar. Peony in face, macaw in voice and raiment, she embraced and
enveloped the Marchesa—who closed her eyes, evidently in prayer, as she
nerved herself for the assault. The poor pale lady bore it unflinchingly, but
that was all; she was cowed, she was numbed, by the mere voice of the
visitor, equally penetrating in any language. The visitor, however, had no

further need for the Marchesa; what she needed was a slim and very
beautiful young man who happened to be talking to the Principessa—she
plucked and removed him without delay. Even as she did so another young
man, also very well in his fashion, appeared accidentally in her path; he too
was annexed; and Madame de Baltasar, doing what she could to lend them a
conquering rather than a consenting air, established them in a corner with
herself between them. The Marchesa, reviving, gave a sudden gasp at the
sight; for the second victim, who was a very British and candid-looking
youth in naval uniform, was one of the dear boys, her nephews, and a
glimpse of the peony-face beside him brought the letter from Devonshire
very sharply to her mind. “A few nice friends—!” The Principessa looked
up with humour. “I feel for you, dear Gertrude,” she said, “but what do you
expect? Why ever do you let that woman into your house?” “I don’t let
her,” wailed the Marchesa, very helpless. “Well, she’s grabbed Don Mario
from me and your nephew from you,” said the Principessa comically; “at
any rate they’ll keep her quiet for a time.” A peal of liberal shrieks rang out
from the lady in the corner, and the Marchesa closed her eyes again in a
mute petition.
It was a pleasantly expressive picture all the same, that of the group in
the corner. The parti-coloured lady, who was by no means young, had so
settled herself that she appeared imprisoned, penned in her place by two
masterful men; and it would be natural to suppose that the two men were
disputing for possession of her, but this effect was less easily contrived—
since one of the men was English, of an odd unchivalrous tribe whose ways
are beyond calculation. I don’t know what race had produced Madame de
Baltasar—the united effort of them all, may be, for all their tongues were
mingled in her shrieks; but there was no doubt concerning Don Mario—he
was the last perfection of Latinity and he played his part. He was peerlessly
beautiful, and he sat with his long fingers entwined about his knee, his eyes
attentively upon the peony, his cold profile turned with utter correctness to
his rival. He was far too mannerly, of course, to be jealous, to be hostile in
any open movement; even when his rival failed to notice the lady’s glove on
the floor it was only by the barest implication of a gesture that Don Mario
rebuked and triumphed over him. A lady in a corner may rely on Don
Mario; however hard she begins to find it to tighten that horrid loose fold
under her chin, however mauve the powder on her cheek now shows upon
the underlying crimson, Don Mario’s eyes are still fixed on her in deep

unwavering attention. And Madame de Baltasar, I dare say, had by this time
schooled herself to be blind to something that she might easily have seen, if
she had chosen, in his steady regard—in that knightly “belgarde” which she
accepted without scrutinizing it too closely; for he wasn’t troubled to hide
the serene amused impudence with which he played his part. The crazy old
ruin, with her cautious neckband and her ruddled wrinkles—he lent himself
politely to her ancient game, remarking that she had grown careless in the
handling of the orange lights in her hair, which were certainly fitful and
obscured towards the roots. But a lady needn’t concern herself with the
finer shades in Don Mario’s eloquent looks; he can be thoroughly trusted, at
any rate in a public corner of a drawing-room.
An Englishman on the other hand, a candid young Briton, is a queer
untutored thing of which you can never be really sure. The Marchesa’s
nephew was pink and pleasant, and his undisguised interest in Madame de
Baltasar might please her, you would think, for any one could see that it
was much more genuine than Don Mario’s. It did please her, no doubt, and
she liberally challenged and rallied him; she gave him more than his share,
it was he who had the full blaze of her charms. He luminously faced them
in return with the frankest interest and wonder; never, never had he seen
such a wildly remarkable object. “Well, of all the queer old picture-cards
—!” he said to himself; and he laughed with a volleying explosion at the
freedom of her humour. He liked her too, the quaint old freak and spark that
she was; you couldn’t help liking her loud familiar cackle, her point-blank
coquetries discharged with such brass and bounce; she brisked you up and
rattled you on in a style you don’t expect in the Marchesa’s solemn saloon.
To Madame de Baltasar, no doubt, the pink British face was an open book,
and in his barbaric fashion the young man was well enough, and she
enjoyed herself. But then his barbarism was declared in a manner of
simplicity which proved to her, yes, that these island-seamen are not to be
trusted as one may trust Don Mario. The open young sailor, instead of
turning his own more faulty profile to his rival and ousting him in triumph
—what must he do but burst out pleasantly to the knightly Latin, appeal to
him with mirthful eyes, join hands with him hilariously to watch the sport!
It was so, there was no mistaking it; the young British monster had drawn
the other man, his antagonist, into a partnership of youth, irreverent,
unchivalrous, to watch the raree-show of this marvellous old bird and
stimulate her to wilder efforts. And so naturally too, so ingenuously, like the

great silly oaf that he really was, with his long legs and huge hands! It
hadn’t so much as crossed his mind that a woman, still a fine woman in her
ripeness, was signally honouring a man; he only saw a crazy jolly absurd
old sport who made him laugh so heartily that he had to share the fun with
his neighbour. One can’t be surprised if Madame de Baltasar asked herself
what, in heaven’s name, they teach these young monsters in their barbaric
wild.
I find it impossible to tear my eyes from the group. What, I wonder, does
Don Mario think of the young Englishman? They were evidently much of
an age; but Don Mario could regard himself, no doubt, as a highly
experienced gentleman compared with this bubbling school-boy. He knew
the world, he knew himself, he very well knew the lady; and I fear it must
be inferred that he thought the Englishman a negligible simpleton. The
school-boy’s familiarity could hardly please him, but he took it with his
accomplished amenity, transformed it into a quiet and neutral kindness and
handed it back; and the Englishman—ah, this is where the simple youth
enjoys such an advantage, where he is unassailable—he saw no difference
at all between what he gave and what he received again, he supposed they
were the same. The same—his own thoughtless guffaw of companionship,
Don Mario’s civilized and discriminating smile!—well might Don Mario
feel that the barbarian took much for granted. Communication upon such
terms is out of the question, with the Englishman ready to fall on your neck
—in fact the islander’s arm was affectionately round Don Mario’s at this
moment—if you decently mask your irony in a fine thin smile. But let it not
be imagined that the Roman civiltà, heritage of the centuries, will exhibit
any signal of discomfort, even with the hand of the savage patting it
sociably and encouragingly on the back. Don Mario talked easily and with
all his charm; he told a story, some experience of his own, for the
entertainment of the lady. The details escape me, but it was a story in which
the Englishman, listening closely, seemed to detect a drift and purpose, an
approach to a point; and he listened still more carefully, gazing at the
speaker, working it out in his mind; and his brow contracted, he was lost—
but aha! he suddenly saw the light and he seized the point. “You mean
you’re in love with somebody,” he jovially exclaimed. The words fell with a
strange clatter on the polished surface of the tale, but Don Mario had caught
them up in a wink. “Why certainly,” he said—“I’m in love with Madame de
Baltasar.” Lord!—for the moment it was too quick for the blank and simple

youth; but relief came with the lady’s scream of delighted amusement, and
he broke into the humour of the jest with resounding appreciation. A good
fellow, this Don Whatever-he-is, and a sound old sport, Madame de What’s-
her-name—and altogether a cheerier time than one would look for at Aunt
Gertrude’s rather alarming tea-fight.
The Marchesa herself was finding it less enlivening; one of the dear boys
had got into the wrong corner, the other was still missing, poor Nora Gilpin
would try to waylay the Principessa; and though the Marchesa was used to
the sense that nothing in the world goes ever easily, she betrayed in her look
the weight of all she was carrying. But she was grateful to the Principessa,
and with cause; for so long as Miss Gilpin was kept at a distance the little
American was indeed a treasure to an anxious hostess. Nothing gayer,
nothing more ornamental and affable could be desired for a festival that
threatened to languish. She sat on a round stool or tuffet, her small person
erect, her knee tilted and her toe pointed like a porcelain shepherdess—a
wonder of art, an exquisite toy of the eighteenth century; and one could
infer how precious and rare the little figure must be from the fact that it was
entirely perfect, not a finger broken, not a rose damaged on her decorative
hat—which showed with what scrupulous care she had been packed and
kept. One could almost have sworn that the tint of clear colour in her cheek
was alert and alive, that it came and went with a living pulse; she was a
triumph of the hand of the craftsman who produced her. And to think that
she came, not from the cabinet of the Pompadour, but from the roaring
market of democracy—how have they learnt such perfection of delicate
workmanship over there? She seemed as manifestly the result of ages of
inherited skill as Don Mario himself; at least I should say so, perhaps, but
for the chance that again places them side by side before me. For Don
Mario, the party in the corner having at last broken up, had returned to the
Principessa; and he stood by her side, charmingly inclined, with glances
more burning, less scorching, than those he had levelled at the orange-
clouded fringe. And I now remark that with all Don Mario’s beautiful finish
he doesn’t set one gaping at the price he must have cost; one sees in a
moment than an object of that sort is not to be bought with money. “Not to
be bought?”—I can imagine the tone of the Principessa, if she chose to
speak: “He looks as though he weren’t to be bought? Why, it’s exactly that
that will fetch his price, and well he knows it. Not to be bought indeed!—I

could tell you a little about that. Now there behind you—there’s where
money fails, if you like!”
She meant of course the Marchesa; and with the unspoken word of the
china shepherdess in my ear I swing round towards the spectacle she faces.
The sudden movement surprises the effect to which the Principessa no
doubt alluded; I catch the Marchesa from the right point of view and I
understand. The harassed soul was easier now, for the tropical intruder had
departed and the simple seaman was re-established in more temperate
company; the letter from Devonshire was no longer a reproach. The
Marchesa breathed more freely; she stood for a moment unoccupied, resting
upon her relief, almost persuaded that the world was leaving her in peace.
She was no worldling, the good lady; neither she nor her forefathers had
taken thought to be prepared for the world, to study the arts with which it
may be repulsed, attracted, trodden under or turned to account. The
Marchesa had no manners, no glances, no speeches—no raiment even, you
might say—but those of her kindly nature, the well-meaning right-intending
soul that she happened to be. She was not a work of art; and therein is the
effect that she makes in her Roman palace, the effect you may surprise if
you follow the word of the Principessa and look suddenly round. There
clings about her, and she seems to diffuse it upon the company, a pallor of
simple daylight, a grey uncertain glimmer from a morning in Devonshire;
and it gives her a friendly gentle air, for it is the light to which she was born
and it is natural to her; but to the Principessa, to Don Mario, even to the
Roman palace, it is not a trifle disastrous. The pretty little work of art upon
the tuffet was aware of it, and I could fancy that she bids me look, look
again at her, to see how ghastly her china-tints have become in the dimness
of a rainy English morning. I won’t say that—the Principessa exaggerated,
perhaps defiantly; but it certainly was plain that she wasn’t intended to face
the open weather. Good Aunt Gertrude, troubled and incompetent in facing
the world, could be left out in rain and storm at any time, and none the
worse. The fibre that is by this betokened is not, we understand, to be
bought for money. The Principessa may be right, but I doubt whether she
honestly wishes her child to acquire it. After all the Marchesa is about as
ornamental as the waterproof in which as a girl she braved the weather of
an uncertain climate.
And now there arrived, there crossed the room with a quick step, there
shook hands ceremoniously with the Marchesa, a personage whose

appearance in that company I hadn’t at all expected. Deering!—who could
have supposed that Deering would present himself here, and that too at the
very hour which is consecrated to the plush and marble of the real Rome in
the Via Nazionale? He caught my eye as he crossed the room, and he
smiled, as I thought, self-consciously; it put him slightly to the blush that I
should see him attending the mild tea-pot of the Marchesa. She greeted him
with pleased effusion and drew him aside; I wasn’t near enough to hear
their talk, but the Marchesa had evidently much to say, and Deering listened
with his well-known gleam of sarcastic observation. He was quite
becomingly at his ease, and his flower-droop was markedly successful—it
was clearly one of his more slender days; but I noticed that in the patched
and tattered saloon, which had struck me as the topmost height of all the
Romanism I had met with, the careful composition of his Roman clothing
looked alien and singular. He may have been dressed in the taste of the real
Rome, but the result was to make him appear as much of a stranger in the
palace of the Dark Shops as the forlorn Marchesa herself. That good lady
presently released him, and he made his way towards me—but with a signal
to me to wait as he did so, for he stopped momentarily in passing beside the
Marchesa’s nephew and laid a light finger on his shoulder. The young
seaman looked round, nodded familiarly and went on with his talk. I shall
never get to the end of Deering, and I told him so when he joined me; for I
didn’t see how or where these excellent people should fit into the circle of
his associations, those with which he had dazzled me when we met last
month by the Tortoises. I had been supposing that my way, though it was he
who had smarted me on it, was steadily leading me further from the world
he had sketched so brilliantly as his own. Yes, said Deering, I might well be
surprised; but he could assure me it was much more surprising to himself.
He had no intention, however, of lingering—he proposed that I should
come away with him at once. Could he fly so soon?—it seemed abrupt, but
he waved off my scruple and led me immediately to the Marchesa to take
our leave. “Good-bye, Aunt Gertrude,” he said—“I fear I must be going.”
“Good-bye, dear boy,” returned the Marchesa; “come very soon and see me
again.”
He was the missing nephew!—the stroke of his revelation of the fact was
thoroughly successful, for it took me absurdly by surprise. My thought
travelled back to the poor flimsy mountebanks of the Via Nazionale, and I
perceived that they had divined my detached and scornful Deering, him

with the gypsy in his blood, even more shrewdly than I had supposed—or
rather, no doubt, they had had fuller information than mine. He had told
them nothing, but they knew all about him, trust them—they knew how
firmly his other foot was planted upon a solider world than theirs. When
Deering and I now issued from the portal of the classic name I stopped him,
I pointed to the name and the vast grey palace-front, and I asked him how
he had had the face to talk to me in my innocence about his “real Rome” of
the tram-lines and the plate-glass windows—with all this within a few yards
of us at the very moment. Had he been ashamed of me, unwilling to present
me to Aunt Gertrude and the monument of history up his sleeve?—no
indeed, and I didn’t even put the question, for Deering’s motives are much
loftier than this. Rather it was magnificent of him, I confessed, to drop the
palace, disregard the grandiose name, neglect it as unworthy of mention
compared with the company of the mountebanks at the marble-topped table.
But how he had deceived me—I now trusted his word no more, and I began
to see trickery of some sort even in that chance encounter with him the
other day by the English tea-room; he was probably then on his way to join
the Marchesa in her afternoon drive on the Pincio. And it was he, perverse
and double-lived, who had for a brother that soul of open candour I had just
been studying. “I have never consented,” said Deering rather primly, “to be
judged in the light of my relations. I take my way, and I gave you the
opportunity of taking it too. You have bungled it so shockingly that it has
brought you to this.”
It had brought us in fact to the neighbouring Square of the Tortoises;
there were the four boys crouched beneath the bowl of the fountain,
clutching the tails of the tortoises in the ripple of the water, the dapple of
the sunlight. Where would Deering’s line have brought me if I had clung to
him throughout? In the end, it would seem, to the palace of the Marchesa,
which I had reached on my own account; what I may have missed on the
way to it I shall never know. I could declare to him, none the less, that I had
seen many things of singular mark, things that I should never have
discovered in the state of romantic innocence which he had been the first to
corrupt; and for this I thanked him, though on the matter of Rome’s reality I
was even now in confusion as deep as ever. My authorities wouldn’t agree;
and on the whole I maintained to Deering that my own romance, when now
and then I had caught a glimpse of it between the heads of the crowd, had to
my eye a more substantial look than most of the realities that had been

offered me in the place of it. What had he to say to that? Well then he had to
say, regretfully but distinctly, that I was incurable; and one of the Botticelli
hands was laid upon my arm in a gesture that resigned me, with tenderness,
with compassion, with finality, to the sad ravages of my illusion. “Go back
to your books,” he sighed; “I have done my best—good-bye!” It was
touchingly felt and spoken; the attitude was striking. But his farewell, I am
glad to say, was only rhetorical. We shuffled for a long while to and fro
across the sunny little square, discussing my month of blunders.

LONDON: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS),
LTD.
CHISWICK PRESS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

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