SRA-E Lisbon 2017

Coastal regions are experiencing increasing rates of social and ecological change, the risks associated with these changes are tasking strategic decision makers with difficult to navigate decision making contexts. Individuals working in environmental management in public and private organisations manage a range of different types of risks in their roles, and the relationships between these risks are important in understanding why certain decisions get made. Orders of risks (societal risks versus organisational risks for example) have been demonstrated to influence decisions around environmental change. Our results highlight the importance of the relationships between different orders of risks and how they interact to shape decisions. From the analysis of data from a design led workshop focusing on coastal management and interviews our findings highlight that decisions to manage environmental risks are influenced by interactions between first and second order risks. We explore how this interaction can open up or narrow down adaptation decision-making spaces. These findings help to elucidate the dynamic processes that shape how decision makers manage risk in uncertain situations and brings to the fore the role of institutional and cultural processes in the negotiation of options related to environmental risk management.