Applying a framework of environmental and climate change adaptation to evaluate government intervention in coastal Louisiana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Government planning is an integral part of shaping decision-making about adaptation to environmental change. It affects the resources available for adaptation, and in turn enables or constrains the choices available to populations pursuing adaptation. In this article, we introduce a novel adaptation framework that supports the analysis of adaptation planning documents to identify patterns and trends in priorities among adaptation strategies. In turn, the framework can be applied to evaluate alignment with adaptation plan objectives and to compare plans across multiple scales of government. We apply this framework to analyse adaptation plans in coastal Louisiana, a region experiencing severe environmental change that threatens biodiversity and local livelihoods. Through our adaptation framework, we examine how the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana shapes the trajectory of environmental change adaptation in coastal Louisiana across scales of government. We find that techno-managerial solutions dominate the adaptation strategies proposed in the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s 2017 State of Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, and that the agency’s main adaptation strategies neglect to support of socio-economic and cultural adaptation approaches despite listing them as major objectives.