Pragmatic muddling as an enabler for coastal adaptation? Implementation of seawalls as protection against sea-level rise in Aceh, Indonesia

There is growing scholarly interest in pragmatic approaches to local-level implementation of climate change adaptation. However, hard coastal protection arguably requires a coordinated approach across time and space, and a high level of technical knowledge. Our objective is therefore to assess the extent to which pragmatic approaches can enable effective local adaptation to sea-level rise through hard coastal protection, with a specific focus on seawalls. We use the analytical framework of pragmatic muddling to evaluate how local government officials in Aceh, Indonesia realise the construction of seawalls within a complex governance landscape, drawing on data collected from interview and site visit methods. Our principal findings are that local officials in Aceh do indeed draw on aspects of pragmatic muddling to support seawall implementation, especially by framing projects differently to draw down multiple funding sources; but that the scale and complexity of coastal change can exceed the level of protection that can be realised through local-level pragmatic approaches. The key implications of our findings are: reduce complexity in adaptation governance through better coordination mechanisms, so that local officials can use their context-specific knowledge within a wider programme of interventions; support the development, resourcing and retention of capable personnel at local levels of government who know what the challenges are and what needs to be done; and strengthen mechanisms for systematic evaluation of interventions, including those undertaken on a piecemeal or pragmatic basis, to create a pathway from pragmatic muddling to more transformative adaptation outcomes.