Sustainability and resilience of future river deltas
Coastal river deltas are critical places for achieving the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 under the UN’s 2030 Agenda. But environmental processes and pressures in deltas such as sea level rise, land subsidence, and reduced sediment delivery create challenges for achieving the SDGs in these places. This project of the Water, Climate & Future Deltas hub explores the intersection between sustainable development and resilience in deltas.
While the SDGs are an attempt to limit environmental degradation while pursuing social and economic development, the three environmental goals (SDG 13: climate action, SDG 14: life below water, SDG 15: life on land) are almost always among the lowest priorities in national SDG implementation.
Further, the environmental context of places, which sets the boundary conditions for all social and economic development, are overlooked in the SDGs themselves and in most SDG research. Pushing for particular development goals by 2030 in deltas may actually make them unsustainable in the long-term because of the environmental processes at play.
Resilience (as defined by Holling) provides a powerful lens through which we attempt to identify the ‘safe operating space’ of deltas given their set of environmental processes and conditions. Understanding the resilience of deltas, such as their environmental limits and tipping points, will help us in shaping adaptation pathways towards the SDGs or other societal goals.
This project analyses future socio-economic and environmental scenarios in deltas to identify particular challenges and potential tipping points, to guide adaptation policy. We also examine policy constraints on delta resilience and adaptation, and insights are draw from governance and legal perspectives through collaborators. The project forms part of the goal of the Water, Climate & Future Deltas hub to create adaptation pathways for deltas, and links to other hub projects such as the Drowned Deltas project.