Disaster Prevention and Coastal Adaptation to Floods: the Physical Environment and the Local People

The paper deals with coastal adaptation to floods. The focus is on (i) the physical environment, which is prone to floods and disasters and on (ii) the coastal people and their culture, which is decisive for how floods are perceived and what the adaptation management response will be. Case study area is the Tacloban Region in the Philippines. This region is heavily build up and the natural environment broken down. Mangroves have been cut and natural drainage obstructed by manmade blockades. In 2014 the area was completely destroyed by typhoon Haiyan. The whole area is going to be totally restored and rebuild. Prominent in the new spatial development plan is the combination of traditional hard sea defence constructions and soft constructions, like restoration of mangroves (building-with-nature). From Tacloban, the paper takes a wider view to coastal adaptation. Using the cultural theory, four main general types of coastal people and their culture are discussed. Central point of view is the preferred way to defend against flooding; in the case of the Philippines, but also in Europe and worldwide. Building-with-nature is presented as a kind of management that takes into account and uses the (physical) materials and the forces and ecological interactions present in nature. This should always be, to a greater or lesser extent, combined with the traditional coastal defence. The combination of traditional hard coastal defence and building with nature makes the example of the Philippines interesting for disaster prevention and coastal adaptation worldwide.