Coastal Defense Schemes

The next Natural Capital Singapore Seminar will feature a talk about coastal defense schemes by Dr Natasha Bhatia, principal investigator for the marine and coastal research group for the Natural Capital Singapore project.

Can we use cultural service provision as justification for promoting the use of ‘soft’ coastal defense schemes?

In the UK, the benefits of soft coastal engineering solutions such as managed realignment have been increasingly studied over the past 20 years. However despite these benefits, hard structures are still favoured as the primary solution to rising sea levels and increasing storm surge frequency. Could a greater understanding of the cultural services provided by managed realignment schemes help to promote their use? Discussion and input from the audience will be encouraged.

About the speaker

Dr Natasha Bhatia is a marine ecologist and socio-economist, specialising in the social influences on marine environments, and the identification and assessment of ecosystem services and natural resources. After gaining a 1st class honours degree from the University of Hull in Marine and Freshwater Biology, she remained in Hull to build on her interest of the impacts and links between society and marine and coastal ecosystems and earned a PhD in environmental economics. After completing her PhD, Dr Bhatia was employed as a marine ecologist and socio-economist at the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, a multidisciplinary environmental consultancy. She moved to Singapore two years ago to join the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as a lecturer and undergraduate programme director. Dr Bhatia is currently a principal investigator for the marine and coastal research group for the Natural Capital Singapore project.