Figure 15.7

Figure 15.7 |  Adaptation measures implemented to reduce coastal risks in small islands. Panel 1 provides examples of implementation of different types of measures aimed at reducing coastal erosion and flooding. The measures include no response (no intervention, widespread in small islands), hard protection through the construction of engineering-based structures, accommodation through dwelling and infrastructure raising, planned retreat, advance (i.e., especially island raising) and ecosystem-based measures, in three small island regions, the Indian and Pacific oceans and Caribbean. It highlights the prevalence of no response, hard protection and the increasing use of ecosystem-based measures. Based on the example of two beach sites in Mauritius (Mon Choisy in the north and Saint-Félix in the south), panel 2 shows that the measures used at a given coastal site evolve over time (e.g., from no response to hard protection, and then planned retreat and ecosystem-based measures) and that recent DRR (Saint-Félix) and adaptation (Mon Choisy) projects often combine several types of measures, including retreat and ecosystem-based measures (Duvat et al., 2020a). Together, panels 1 and 2 emphasise the diversity and increasing complexity of the measures implemented in small islands.