Coastal Futures: How Technology and Nature can Protect our Shorelines

With our coasts increasingly threatened by storms, flooding, erosion and rising sea levels, Event Director at Oceanology International David Ince highlights how technology, innovation, policy and nature-based solutions can protect shorelines while driving sustainable growth.

Coastal zones – home to billions of people worldwide and critical to the international economy and regional industries – are at a turning point.

Threatened by rising sea levels, intensifying storms, unpredictable weather patterns, increased erosion, unchecked development and loss of biodiversity, these vulnerable coastal regions are bearing the brunt of the escalating effects of long-term climate change and natural hazards.

Waterfront populations are expanding quickly, particularly in Asia and Africa, exposing more people to risk while also causing potential disruption to fragile coastal ecosystems.

In the face of these hazards, the challenge of protecting our precious coastal regions and ensuring our coasts survive the climate crisis is more pressing than ever if homes, lives, livelihoods, habitats and industries are to be safeguarded.

A new era for coastal management calls for immediate action, integrating a range of solutions from predictive modelling and environmental monitoring to habitat restoration and sustainable infrastructure.

Essential engineering developments and future-proof initiatives are key to ensuring healthy ecosystems, strong sea defences, effective maritime operations, thriving ports and harbours, secure offshore energy infrastructure, and sustainable marine tourism and aquaculture.

With the right mix of the latest technology, innovations and nature-based solutions, our threatened coastlines can become frontlines of coastal resilience and engines of the blue economy.

The critical challenges facing our coastal regions, communities and industries are evident across the world. High-tide flooding, extreme storms surges, erosion, strengthened hurricanes and typhoons due to rising temperatures, and rising saltwater affecting farm fields in regions such as Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are among the issues which will continue to severely impact populations and businesses as the effect of climate change accelerates.

With coastal areas often hubs of economic activity and infrastructure development, offering access to trade, nature and recreation, estimates suggest that over 2 billion people, or about 30% of the total global population, live within 50km of shore (according to a comprehensive study using high-resolution data from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Global LandScan Project).

In Europe alone, over 200 million people live within 50km of the coastline, with coastal regions contributing to nearly 40% of the continent’s GDP and handling 75% of its international trade via maritime routes. 

England has some of the fastest eroding coastlines in Europe. In the UK’s Environment Agency’s national assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England 2024, the National Coastal Erosion Risk Map (NCERM) shows that coastal erosion risk will increase with climate change. Even with Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs) completed, there could be 19,700 properties at risk of coastal erosion up to the end of the century. Without any of the investment set out in SMPs being carried out, this figure is expected to be 5 times greater.

As the lead authority for managing the risk of flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea, the Environment Agency is working to deliver £7.9 billion capital investment over 10 years to protect 840,000 properties from flooding.

Sea-level rise is now on the global agenda, with small island developing states and low-lying countries calling for legal measures in the light of the estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations that by 2050, global sea levels will rise between 15 and 30 centimetres, on average.

The ability of our coasts to bounce back from this onslaught depends on ensuring resilience through restoring natural features (such as marshes and dunes), preparing infrastructure, and planning for emergencies.

New technology developments and initiatives addressing the challenges posed by climate change to coastal cities, rural coastal regions and ports, plus novel solutions in the fields of coastal engineering and shallow water engineering, are already making a difference in the protection of both people and property along the shore and for ensuring safe access for boats and ships in ports and harbours.

For instance, reflecting the value of space-based technologies, the European Space Agency (ESA) is inviting tenders now (October 2025) to develop and deploy innovative solutions that enhance the resilience and sustainability of coast regions. By leveraging satellite Earth observation (SatEO), global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and satcom, potential services range from monitoring and early warning systems to water and ecosystem management to urban and infrastructure planning to disaster response and recover, to Nature-Based Solutions and port solutions.

There are advancements in other areas such as movable barrier systems, which are more environmentally compatible, and biogenic mussel reefs, with the potential to reduce coastal erosion while promoting biodiversity, and other projects are progressing to create artificial reefs and living shorelines. The use of microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) and Enzyme induced calcium carbonate precipitation (EICP) to reinforce the ground are further examples of the sorts of promising eco-friendly techniques for coastal protection against erosion and seabed stabilisation.

In addition to innovative engineering and materials, and satellite imagery, the key technologies which can turn the tide include the use of drones and computer models, advanced monitoring systems, sensor networks and IoT, advanced modelling and simulation, and data analytics and AI.

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