A one-day workshop on “Coastal Communities and Natural Disasters” was organized by the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) and Madras School of Economics (MSE), Chennai at MSE on March 2, 2005. The purpose of the workshop was to consider how vulnerable coastal communities respond to risk and uncertainty and what public policies can help decrease the cost of disasters. Thirteen experts from the South Asian region (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives) shared their views in the brainstorming session.

With the recommendation from this workshop, SANDEE began a new area of grants related to coastal communities, natural disasters and environmental change. The research and policy notes below, which is based on the discussion among experts of this workshop, identifies some of the key issues in coastal zone management that SANDEE research will address.