Assessing household perception, autonomous adaptation and economic value of adaptation benefits: Evidence from West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

Climate change is causing sea-level rise, intense and frequent storm surge flooding, and significant shoreline erosion in Malaysian coastal areas. Consequently, coastal properties, infrastructure, and livelihoods are threatened. It has become apparent that adaptation at the household and community level is necessary to offset the adverse impacts of coastal hazards. The community needs to be made aware of the risks, acquire knowledge about adaptation options, and be empowered to take their own actions. Public perception and preference are therefore crucial for design and implementation of effective planning for climate change. Thus, this study assesses households' perception, adaptation measures and empirically estimates willingness to pay and preference for planned adaptation measures to guide policy instruments through public engagement. In Malaysia, ten highly vulnerable coastal areas in the Selangor coast were surveyed at the household level (n = 1016) through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Regarding households’ perception and adaptation methods, most of the households in the highly exposed areas perceived less risk of inundation and sea-level rise threat and adopted less proactive adaptation and limited risk reduction behaviours during the extreme event. The study found that 66.9% of households were willing to pay for planned adaptation measures despite the limited income capabilities and in favour of moderate adaptation (23.9%). The binomial and ordinal regression results indicated that the probability of willingness to pay for planned adaptation measures significantly increases with age, prior exposure to coastal hazards, awareness, risk perception, community participation, being affected by property damage and loss of income due to extreme events. With increased monthly household income and access to telecommunication services, households will probably pay higher for better adaptation measures. A significant amount of perceived yearly adaptation benefits in the coastal districts revealed the economic value of extensive (22,969.50 MYR/5462.43 USD), moderate (21,853.20 MYR/5196.96 USD) and minimal adaptation measures (8022.90 MYR/1907.94 USD) that can be utilised to incentivise coastal adaptation plans. The findings suggest policies to incorporate social values to reduce vulnerability, enhance community resilience, and contribute to the knowledge gap of adaptation research in the coastal areas.