Governance capacity in Scottish shoreline management: implications for coastal engineering

Coastal engineering plays a critical role in managing erosion, flooding, and sea-level rise affecting communities and infrastructure. In Scotland, shoreline management planning and Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) frameworks provide structured approaches to risk identification and the prioritisation of interventions. However, the effectiveness and longevity of engineering solutions depend not only on technical performance and economic justification, but also on institutional capacity to plan, deliver, maintain, and adapt interventions over time. This paper examines governance capacity as an explicit engineering consideration in coastal decision making, focusing on how institutional capability conditions feasibility across the asset lifecycle. Using a practice-oriented approach aligned with ICE professional guidance, the study synthesises shoreline management plans, FCERM appraisal frameworks, Dynamic Coast evidence, and established coastal engineering standards. The analysis considers how staffing capacity, funding continuity, organisational coordination, and asset management arrangements influence option appraisal, design, delivery, and long-term performance. The findings show that interventions requiring monitoring, phased delivery, or adaptive management impose greater governance demands than static solutions. Where capacity is constrained, this can influence option selection, favouring simpler interventions while increasing the risk of inflexibility and long-term maintenance burdens. Treating governance capacity as an explicit engineering constraint supports more realistic, deliverable, and resilient shoreline management under conditions of climate change.