This book provides a holistic perspective on coastal dunes highlighting new insights into present-day challenges to show that narratives along with numbers graphics and computer models have a role to play in climate change science policymaking and citizenship awareness. Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach this book combines fiction history and science to discuss past present and future ways of living in coastal areas. Dunes are hybrid environments a combination of natural elements and human agency; they tell stories of values traditional wisdom institutions empires technology vulnerabilities coastal management adaptation and sustainability. Drawing on the past Joana Gaspar de Freitas unpacks a diverse and fascinating history of dunes linking knowledge methods and approaches from several case studies across the world including France Portugal Brazil Mozambique New Zealand USA and the UK. The book connects the bio geophysics of global change with the main driver of transformation- human agency-to integrate and address nature-society issues taking human and nonhuman agents into account. In following the choices paths and strategies that created today’s coastal landscapes the book generates greater awareness and understanding of how to shape coastal futures. This is an engaging original and fundamentally important book that fills a gap in our knowledge of cities infrastructure economies and cultures built on shorelines. A key read for scholars researchers and students in environmental history environmental science sustainability coastal land management and climate change. The Open Access version of this book available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com has been made available under a Creative Commons Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license. |A Global Environmental History of Coastal Dunes | Environment & Sustainability
