Match each adaptation measure to a specific risk, then check its cost, side effects and accessibility.
Coastal protection can combine defences, drainage, suitable land heights and coastal habitats. Carefully planned reclamation creates raised land and space for protective works. It also uses materials and can change marine habitats and water flow. Assess these costs alongside the protection gained.
Health resilience includes cooler public spaces, heat information, prepared healthcare services and mosquito control. Shade and places to rest reduce heat exposure when they are accessible and well maintained. Advice helps only if people can act on it.
High-technology farming uses limited space intensively and controls some growing conditions. It still needs energy, skills and affordable production. NEWater and desalination reduce reliance on rainfall and particular water sources, but add treatment and energy costs. These needs can create research, skilled jobs and services. Whether an opportunity succeeds depends on its practical results.
Step by step
Protect exposed places
Coastal works and drainage address different routes to flooding.
Protect health and supplies
Cooling, mosquito control and varied food and water sources address other risks.
Check the trade-offs
Maintenance, energy, land, habitats and affordability affect which options work.
Worked example: Compare two food strategies
Controlled-environment farming can protect some crops from outdoor weather. Diverse imports can provide crops that are difficult or expensive to grow locally. Combining them may give more options, but the choice depends on cost, capacity, nutrition and reliable energy rather than a claim of complete self-sufficiency.
Watch out for this
An adaptation is successful as soon as the equipment is installed.
It must work when needed, be maintained and be accessible to the people or systems it is meant to protect. Check outcomes over time.
Check your understanding
Which is the strongest evaluation of desalination?
- It is useless because it requires energy.
- It removes all water risks because the sea is large.
- It reduces dependence on rainfall but requires reliable energy and affordable operation.