What's New in Adaptive Management and Restoration of Coasts and Estuaries?

Adaptive learning about nature, based on observations and continual rethinking, dates back to Native Americans in what we call Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Fast forward to 1950+, when Eugene, Howard, and William Odum promoted sound science and its use in managing ecosystems-called adaptive management (AM). What began as an instinctive way of thinking and deciding how to obtain resources using accumulated information became a structured, science-based process that improves over time, given continual critiques of projects, clarification of definitions, and analyses of outcomes. The basic need is still to sustain ecosystem services despite uncertainties, such as climate change. I report recent innovations in the AM of estuaries and coasts that can add knowledge and improve future efforts. Innovations include new guidelines and approaches to confront uncertainty, engage stakeholders, improve governance, prioritize actions, centralize the role of science, and manage holistically. AM has been effective along the coast of Denmark and in several estuaries, and it is evolving elsewhere. In The Netherlands, Spain, California, and Oregon, large field experiments are generating learning while restoring (adaptive restoration, AR). AM and AR can help managers of coastal ecosystems and watersheds mitigate the impacts of rising sea levels, sea storms, and human disturbances. Science-based decision-making will become more nimble and protection/restoration more effective as innovations and model approaches are tailored to individual estuaries and coasts.