Community Resilience in Locales of Coastal Erosion: Local Knowledge, Culture and Practice in the Upper Gulf of Thailand

This research project, a collaboration between the UK and Thailand, seeks to engender new interdisciplinary and international partnerships in order to study the impacts and adaptation measures associated with coastal erosion. It draws on creative and participatory arts practice to critically examine community-based disaster risk reduction, including how local knowledge can be better integrated with expert and professional contexts as well as policy-makers. The research centres on understanding the experiences and capacities of individuals and local organisations in the Upper Gulf of Thailand, one of the most threatened coastal areas in the world. The results will feed into national and international policy arenas, with a particular contribution of understanding the ways in which lay knowledges can be harnessed towards improving integrated coastal management in areas of extreme vulnerability.