The shifting sands of coastal flood management in South Africa

Abstract

In this paper, the authors do not examine the safety of these coastal systems and the vulnerability of estuaries to flooding from the usual engineering, environmental science or public administration perspective. Instead, the authors adopt a game theory and policy analysis lens and explore the evolution of policy in this regard to flooding safety and estuary management have influenced the conceptual basis of, and choices for, mouth breaching in association with artificial flood releases as the preferred management approach for a particular estuary, the Great Brak Estuary, from 1989 onwards (Slinger et al. 2005). They highlight the alignment of the concept underpinning the new South African national water and coastal policies with the estuary management choices made over the last twenty-five years. This enables us to distinguish four phases and identify the dominant justifications for current and past interventions. They explain the shifting sands of estuarine mouth breaching and flooding policy in terms of three game rounds.