Governing risk in Anthropocene coasts: institutional frictions and social resilience in post-tsunami Chile

Abstract In the Anthropocene, coastal settlements face escalating socio-natural hazards, demanding highly adaptive and integrated disaster risk governance. However, a significant ‘governance gap’ often persists in post-disaster implementation. Using the 2015 Illapel earthquake and tsunami (M w 8.3) in Coquimbo (Chile) as an empirical laboratory, this qualitative study investigates the institutional friction hindering sustainable coastal recovery. Using grounded theory and ethnographic techniques, we analyze the perspectives of ‘street-level bureaucrats’, public officials executing recovery strategies. The findings reveal a critical decoupling between rigid territorial planning instruments and dynamic community risk perceptions, which are deeply rooted in place attachment. We identified three systemic barriers to coastal adaptation: institutional inertia, marginalization of psychosocial factors in technical protocols, and conflict between physical safety mandates and local socioeconomic habitability. This study demonstrates how the Global South challenges traditional top-down urban planning models. To navigate these frictions, we argue for a transition toward 'closed-loop governance’, emphasizing the need to institutionalize social resilience and 'mixed resilience zoning’ in a legally binding manner as core, non-negotiable components of coastal management in highly exposed environments.