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Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer


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15.7 Lessons Learned and Future Work

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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