Mobilising nature-based solutions (NbS) for coastal protection: Public preferences for hard, soft and hybrid coastal protection measures in Bali, Indonesia

Mobilising nature-based solutions (NbS) is increasingly considered as a sustainable and climate-resilient alternative to conventional approaches to coastal protection. This often involves trade-offs between protection effectiveness/timing, ecological outcomes, and infrastructure design that vary between contexts. However, public preferences regarding these trade-offs remain insufficiently understood, particularly in rapidly developing coastal regions in the Global South. This study aims to investigate public preferences of coastal protection measures focusing on Bali (Indonesia), a rapidly transforming and tourism-dependent coastal region facing increasing climate and development pressures. We employ a discrete choice experiment (DCE) (n = 370) analysed using a Mixed Logit model and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to evaluate how trade-offs in key attributes of coastal protection measures (“Protection level”, “Urgency of protection”, “Lifetime”, “Biodiversity” and “Materials) influence public choices across very different coastal protection paradigms (hard, soft, and hybrid measures), and the related heterogeneity. The results reveal strong preference for coastal protection options characterised by full protection, faster implementation, longer durability, natural materials, and positive impacts on biodiversity. Among the alternatives, hybrid measures were the most preferred, followed by hard and soft measures. However, there is significant heterogeneity in preferences across socio-demographic characteristics. By explicitly examining trade-offs between the preferences for hard, hybrid, and soft coastal protection measures, we provide new empirical evidence on public support for multifunctional coastal protection approaches. This evidence fills to the growing literature on NbS by demonstrating how public preferences can inform the design of climate-resilient coastal protection strategies in tourism-dependent coastal regions and other rapidly developing coastal areas.