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Climate-related coastal-adaptation technology transfer is a relatively new
phenomenon for coastal scientists, planners and managers. This is illustrated
by the limited number of publications that deal explicitly with the subject.
This does not suggest, however, that technology transfer for coastal adaptation
represents fundamentally new scientific, planning or management concepts. Coastal
adaptation to climate change is a logical extension of ongoing coastal-management
activities, for which the transfer of technologies has always been important.
However, many of the stakeholders involved in technology transfer have yet to
recognise the relevance of these activities to climate adaptation.
This chapter concludes that adaptation technologies can play an important part
in reducing coastal vulnerability to climate change. However, empirical information
on coastal adaptation to climate change is still scarce and past and current
efforts of technology transfer in coastal zones have been poorly documented,
so uncertainty about the appropriateness and generic applicability of adaptation
technologies remains considerable. Moreover, the absence of any criteria to
measure a project's outcome rather than its output has thus far impeded any
realistic evaluation of the effectiveness of technology transfer in terms of
reducing risks of coastal hazards and increasing adaptive capacity. In other
words, given the current state of knowledge, it is difficult to say whether
technology transfer in coastal zones to date has been a success or a failure.
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