Climate Adaptation Responses Research Articles

Agenda-setting and policy leadership for municipal climate change adaptation

Climate change presents a pervasive global threat to billions of people as well as ecosystems. Global mitigation policy failures mean we must now urgently adapt to projected climate impacts. While local government is expected to play a vital role in climate change adaptation, major breakdowns are occurring in local governments’ ability to implement adaptation responses. Studies point to the importance of two key factors underpinning successful municipal climate change adaptation – supportive leadership and an authorising environment for adaptation. But few studies provide in-depth analysis of these factors and how they play out in practice. This paper reports the results of research addressing this knowledge gap, drawing on analysis of leadership in four Australian local governments (municipal councils). Twenty-five local government elected officials, executive leaders, and staff required to operationalise leaders’ decisions were interviewed. Interviews examined leaders’ role and influence in climate change adaptation and their receptiveness to mainstreaming. Results show that whether leaders consider climate risk on their policy agenda is highly variable and subject to factors such as: public mood and community expectations; issue salience; the presence of dedicated policy entrepreneurs to champion a response; and focusing events that heighten the urgency of adaptation. We identify three concrete opportunities to mainstream municipal climate adaptation responses: enhance issue salience within leaders; leverage networks of influence; and strengthen formal systems of municipal climate governance.

Can Exclusion of Feral Ecosystem Engineers Improve Coastal Floodplain Resilience to Climate Change? Insight from a Case Study in North East Arnhem Land, Australia

Global climate change can interact with local drivers, such as ecosystem engineers, to exacerbate changes in ecosystem structure and function, with socio-ecological consequences. For regions of Indigenous interest, there may also be cultural consequences if species and areas affected are culturally significant. Here we describe a participatory approach between the Indigenous (Yolngu) Yirralka Rangers and non-Indigenous researchers that explored the interaction between sea level rise and feral ungulate ecosystem engineers on culturally significant floodplains in the Laynhapuy Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), northern Australia. A feral ungulate exclusion fence array (12 fenced and 12 unfenced plots) was stratified by elevation/salinity to disentangle the effects of salinity and ungulates on floodplain soil and vegetation. We found that exclusion of feral ungulates improved ground cover vegetation, which, according to our literature-derived ecosystem process model, may enhance soil trapping and reduce evapotranspiration to provide the antecedent conditions needed to improve floodplain resilience to sea level rise. The mid-zone of the supratidal floodplain study site was suggested as the region where the benefits of fencing were most pronounced after two years and ground cover species diversity was highest. Ongoing monitoring is required to investigate whether removal of feral ungulates can increase resilience against sea level rise and recruitment of eco-culturally significant Melaleuca species. An interview with a key Yolngu Traditional Owner of the study site demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of the partnership. Yolngu land owners and rangers were active co-researchers and will decide if, when and how to integrate results into feral ungulate management and climate adaptation responses, highlighting the importance of industry-university partnerships in maximising biocultural conservation outcomes.

A co-produced national climate change risk and vulnerability assessment framework for South Africa

IntroductionThere are mounting demands to undertake climate risk and vulnerability (CRV) assessments for policy, planning, funding, insurance, and compliance reasons. In Africa, given the adaptation imperative, this is particularly important. Increasingly, it has become clear that sub-national assessments are needed to inform adaptation practice. However, there has been relatively little guidance on how to undertake these more local assessments and aggregate them making it difficult for national governments to know the extent and variability of climate vulnerability and risk across the country.MethodsIn South Africa, the national government, led by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), undertook to establish a common framework to guide the development and review of CRV assessments. This paper presents the framework that was co-developed through a series of engagements with stakeholders active in implementing and supporting CRV assessments.ResultsThe framework is intended to provide guidance on what to consider when undertaking CRV assessments within diverse South African contexts in order to enable alignment, comparison, and aggregation between them and work towards an effective climate adaptation response across scales. Rather than standardizing a methodology, the framework promotes the use of a standard set of concepts as the basis for each assessment and profiles a diversity of methods, tools and data sources for applying the concepts in a contextually sensitive way. This provides a flexible yet structured sequence of three interlinked steps in a risk and vulnerability assessment process, namely: (1) Planning, (2) Scoping and (3) Assessing. The framework guides users through the choice and application of three assessment depths, depending on decision-context, resourcing and extent of pre-existing data and information. It encourages the integration of participatory and indicator-based methods through an impact chain approach, profiling more than 30 freely available tools and resources. This process builds a strong evidence base and a deepening set of engagements and shared understanding between relevant stakeholders, upon which to act.DiscussionThis South African process can provide insight and support for actors driving the climate agenda in other countries looking to develop comparable assessments as the basis to drive equitable and transformative climate action and learning.

Climate change adaptation responses and human mobility in the Mekong Delta: local perspectives from rural households in An Giang Province, Vietnam

Climate change influences the adaptation responses and mobility patterns of smallholder farmers across multiple scales. This study employed an inductive approach to observe smallholder farmers in An Giang Province in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta to compare the effects of various environmental and climate-related stressors on households with and without contributing migrant household members and on households of different income levels in two rural communes. We looked into the roles that adaptation responses and human mobility patterns play in the daily livelihoods of (translocal) households. We adopted a mixed-methods approach, which involved the administration of a livelihood survey among households in two rural communes (N = 106) and, subsequently, two focus group discussions, unstructured in-depth interviews, and secondary data analysis. We discovered that human mobility, adaptation responses, and climate change are interwoven in a web of complex relationships. No clear differences in effects and climate adaptation responses were discovered between emigrant and nonemigrant households. Hence, paradigms that either portray migration as a failure to adapt or as a form of adaptation in the context of climate change do not adequately explain the findings of this study. Differences between income groups were, however, observed. Relative to other income groups, middle-income farmers were disproportionally affected by climate-related disasters. Additionally, out-migration, aging, upstream hydropower development, and COVID-19 lockdowns posed significant challenges to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The compound effects of these multiple stressors indicate that human mobility, climate change and adaptation patterns should be best approached as ‘wicked’ problems.

Popular attitudes to climate change in the Pacific: the case of Samoa

Understanding popular attitudes to climate change can be important in developing effective climate adaptation responses. However, in the Pacific region, which is at the forefront of impacts of a changing climate, little attention has been given to popular perceptions of climate change. This paper presents the findings of a climate change module in the first Pacific Attitudes Survey (PAS), conducted in Samoa from December 2020 to January 2021. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of Samoans of voting age (n = 1319), the PAS gauges the views of ordinary Samoans towards climate change, including perceptions of the urgency of climate change action, perceptions of the effects of climate change in Samoa, and of individual or institutional capacity to act on climate change. Findings reveal that while most respondents believe that climate change was an urgent problem that needs to be addressed, a significant minority thought it will “never be necessary” to address climate change. This study also found level of education to be a significant factor in climate beliefs. Respondents who had higher education levels were more likely to rate climate change as an urgent problem. Those identifying climate change as an urgent problem that needs to be addressed were significantly more likely to agree that climate change was affecting Samoa in general and their own personal lives. We also found a significant association between perceptions that climate change was an “urgent problem that needs to be addressed”, and willingness to permanently migrate for work.

Potential Applicability of Vulnerability Assessments in the Western Balkan Countries

The Western Balkan (WB) region is one of the relatively vulnerable parts of the continent to climate change: it faces several challenges today and will face potential problems (e.g., increasing risks of flash floods, sea-level rise, droughts, heatwaves, forest fires, etc.) over the coming decades, too. Proper adaptation to these challenges must play a decisive role in sectoral and local decision-making of these counties. Risk and vulnerability assessments, based partly on geographic information systems with map contents, can be one of the potential tools to find proper responses to climate change impacts in European countries. The main problem statement of the article emphasizes the low weight of these analytical decision-support tools in WB countries’ climate and development policies. It examines what types of vulnerability assessments are helpful in WB countries and whether their results show significant territorial differences in given states. To answer these questions, through two case studies, we used a combination of the IPCC- and impact chain-based CIVAS model and complex indicator development methods from the international literature and the Hungarian NAGIS system. Our analyses are principally territorial assessments: they focus on comparing regional/local territories/destinations and identifying relative territorial differences. Through these, we intend to contribute to the recognition of the usefulness of complex vulnerability approaches in WB countries for evaluating climate change risks and identifying future policy responses. The results in the two case studies show that definite territorial inequalities exist in exposure indicators in both analyzed WB countries. Similarly, significant spatial differences in the sensitivity and adaptability factors are also expected. The suggested vulnerability approach proposed here can help countries develop appropriate climate adaptation responses.
 Keywords: climate change, climate adaptation, strategic planning, sectoral vulnerability, tourism, heat waves

Institutions for long-term problems: the influence of the Dutch Delta Programme on forward-looking climate adaptation responses at the local level

Climate change requires forward-looking policy responses. Developing such responses can be challenging for governments and, therefore, specific long-term institutions have been proposed for overcoming short-termism. However, the impacts of such institutions have been underexplored. In this paper, we analyze the influence of a long-term institution, the Dutch Delta Programme, on local governments’ decisions. The paper results are based on an analysis of climate adaptation strategies, investment plans and adaptation projects and interviews with policymakers, across seven Dutch municipalities. Results indicate that while local adaptation strategies are largely forward looking, adaptation projects tend to focus on solving present-day issues. We found that the Delta Programme enabled local governments to make forward-looking decisions and policies, by: (1) providing knowledge about climate vulnerabilities, (2) creating a broader framing of the issue of climate change, and (3) providing guidance for developing local climate adaptation policies.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) and climate change adaptation in Bangladesh: does planning law facilitate NbS for climate change adaptation in Dhaka?

ABSTRACT Flooding is exacerbated by climate change, and the ecosystem functions of wetlands can assist in mitigating risk and contribute to climate adaptation. Nature based solutions (NbS) have emerged as an alternative to the exclusive reliance on grey infrastructure to drive climate adaptation responses to flooding. This article critically examines the role of planning law to facilitate NbS in the urban context of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The article will explore the following research question: does land use planning law in Bangladesh help facilitate the establishment and maintenance of NbS to assist in adapting to climate flood risk? This article will assess existing planning law on its ability to integrate NbS into the urban climate adaptation context while managing competing and incompatible land use and upholding strong, transparent and equitable governance. This article finds that the inability to enforce regulations and a lack of early consultation and engagement presents serious impediments to implementing NbS through planning law and development policy in Dhaka and contributes to a disconnect between high level policy documents and implementation on the ground, thereby undermining climate change adaptation interventions.

Aboriginal Population and Climate Change in Australia: Implications for Health and Adaptation Planning.

The health impacts of climate are widely recognised, and extensive modelling is available on predicted changes to climate globally. The impact of these changes may affect populations differently depending on a range of factors, including geography, socioeconomics and culture. This study reviewed current evidence on the health risks of climate change for Australian Aboriginal populations and linked Aboriginal demographic data to historical and projected climate data to describe the distribution of climate-related exposures in Aboriginal compared to non-Aboriginal populations in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The study showed Aboriginal populations were disproportionately exposed to a range of climate extremes in heat, rainfall and drought, and this disproportionate exposure was predicted to increase with climate change over the coming decades. Aboriginal people currently experience higher rates of climate-sensitive health conditions and socioeconomic disadvantages, which will impact their capacity to adapt to climate change. Climate change may also adversely affect cultural practices. These factors will likely impact the health and well-being of Aboriginal people in NSW and inhibit measures to close the gap in health between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations. Climate change, health and equity need to be key considerations in all policies at all levels of government. Effective Aboriginal community engagement is urgently needed to develop and implement climate adaptation responses to improve health and social service preparedness and secure environmental health infrastructure such as drinking water supplies and suitably managed social housing. Further Aboriginal-led research is required to identify the cultural impacts of climate change on health, including adaptive responses based on Aboriginal knowledges.

Advancing a hyperlocal approach to community engagement in climate adaptation: Results from a South Florida pilot study in two communities

With increasing urgency of local and regional climate adaptation, there is a growing need for governments to identify and respond effectively to the concerns of communities they serve and to align investments. We designed and piloted a novel hyperlocal method for urban adaptation planning combining two social science tools that have been widely but separately used to foster community engagement and strategize solutions. Our not-for-profit community partners facilitated multi-session online workshops with participants from two communities in South Florida with whom they have well-established relationships and in which socio-economic conditions and climate risks represent notable vulnerabilities. The workshops first employed photovoice to elicit individual narratives about climate change impacts; participants then followed a design thinking protocol to critically evaluate the leading concerns they identified and propose adaptation solutions. Geospatial mapping and data tools were provided for participants to gain additional tools and further knowledge. Local planning and resilience officials attended some or all of the workshops as observers and interlocutors, dialoguing with participants. Comparative analysis revealed differences in risk awareness and primary concerns between communities, and further demonstrated that concerns and solutions proposed by members of at-risk neighborhoods do not always align with geospatial data that often drives infrastructure adaptation planning in the region, suggesting that more widespread use of community engaged methods could enhance government climate adaptation responses for local communities.

Small islands and climate change: analysis of adaptation policy in the Cayman Islands

Small, low-lying islands are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and development of effective adaptation strategies is regarded as an urgent need. Through an analysis of existing and emerging climate adaptation policies, this paper assesses the climate adaptation response in the Cayman Islands. Despite its strong economic status and several developments in the areas of Planning, Environment and Tourism, alongside a draft Climate Change Policy, the study reveals a focus on symbolic policies and a lack of adopted “concrete” climate change adaptation policies. Although the draft National Climate Change Policy (2011) contains a comprehensive range of substantial policies, none has been formally adopted by the Cayman Islands Government. The practical implications of this situation in the face of climate change-related hazards are assessed in the context of Seven Mile Beach, the most heavily developed stretch of the Cayman Islands coast. Here, the prevailing response to shoreline change is stabilisation and, despite several opportunities to change the situation, recent policy developments have not stimulated changes in practice.

The role of the community and voluntary sector in identifying vulnerabilities to climate change in coastal areas and implementing climate adaptation responses

Abstract The National Adaptation Framework aims to reduce Ireland’s vulnerability to climate change by establishing climate adaptation considerations as a priority at local, regional and national level. With coastal areas and habitats particularly susceptible to negative climate change effects, it is necessary to build resilience in these areas by devising coastal adaptation responses in collaboration with coastal communities. Policies and structures have also been put in place to create an enabling environment which facilitates community participation. However, the extent of community engagement and its current role in formulating and implementing coastal adaptation responses are unclear. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the enabling environment in encouraging community-led coastal adaptation solutions by identifying community and voluntary groups who are actively engaging with stakeholders at all levels of governance in key adaptation tasks. The findings reveal that the policies and structures for enhanced local participation in coastal adaptation responses are in place, but as only a small number of communities are actively engaging in coastal adaptation solutions, further progress in their implementation is needed.

Equity and justice as central components of climate change adaptation

Equity and justice as central components of climate change adaptation

Equity in human adaptation-related responses: A systematic global review

Equity in human adaptation-related responses: A systematic global review

Assessing South Africa’s Potential to Address Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector

The marine fisheries sector is one of the most important income sectors in South Africa and plays an important role in food security for small-scale and subsistence fishers. Climate-driven impacts have resulted in distribution shifts and declines in abundance of important fisheries targets, with negative consequences to the users dependent on these resources. The sustainability of the sector depends on its readiness to adapt to climate change. The inclusion of climate change impacts and adaptation in fisheries management documents in South Africa is essential to ensure adequate climate adaptation responses are implemented at the short- and long-term. This study aims to 1) determine if the relevant fisheries national management documents address climate change and adaptation, 2) determine if the relevant national climate change documents address climate change and adaptation in the fisheries sector and 3) evaluate the extent to which fisheries management documents address climate change and adaptation. A content analysis of fisheries management and climate change documents was carried out to determine if they incorporated information on climate change impacts and adaptation and marine fisheries respectively. Fisheries management documents were then screened against nine pre-determined criteria (or themes) based on climate change adaptation to determine the level of inclusion of best practice for climate change adaptation. Results indicate that climate change impacts and adaptation are rarely incorporated in the main fisheries management documents, except for the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Plan for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. However, this document is still waiting to be adopted. The only direct reference identified in all the fisheries documents that supports climate change adaptation was ‘conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity’. With regards to indirect references to climate change adaptation, ‘equity,’ ‘participatory management,’ and ‘capacity building’ were most frequently incorporated in fisheries management documents. There is a need to explicitly incorporate information on climate change impacts and adaptation in South African fisheries management documents and increase the human and financial capacity at national institutions to ensure that the fisheries sector can adequately adapt to climate change.

Distributing Responsibilities for Climate Adaptation: Examples from the Water Domain

It is often assumed that climate adaptation policy asks for new responsibility arrangements between central government and citizens, with citizens getting a more prominent role. This prompts the question under which conditions these new responsibility arrangements can be justified as they may raise serious ethical concerns. Without paying due attention to these ethical concerns, climate adaptation policy may be unsuccessful and even be considered illegitimate. This paper aims to address this topic by exploring some examples of climate adaptation responses and their associated ethical challenges. The examples from the water domain differ in terms of their primary beneficiaries and the extent to which they are prone to collective action problems. Discussion of the examples shows that any shift of responsibilities towards citizens should be accompanied by a governmental responsibility to make sure that citizens are indeed able to assume these responsibilities and a responsibility to see to it that the greater involvement of responsibilities does not create disproportional inequalities.

Climate urbanism through the lens of informal settlements

ABSTRACT For climate urbanism to be relevant in informal settlements, it’s proponents needs to embrace the messy reality that there are no easily implemented, off-the-shelf adaptation solutions. Existing neoliberal climate adaptation responses, which often entrench inequality, are unlikely to succeed in informal settlements. The current groundswell of demands for social justice provide the needed impetus for exploring and experimenting with what adaptation might look like in informal settlements. This contribution suggests two areas for careful consideration when applying climate urbanism concepts to informal settlement contexts, namely (1) the temporal tension between adapting to climate change risk and simultaneously having to deal with other, perhaps more immediate, risks, and (2) the use of the concept of “transformative adaptation” to guide practice-based collaborative interventions.

Planning for a different kind of sea change: lessons from Australia for sea level rise and coastal flooding

ABSTRACT Climate change increases hazards for coastal cities where a large proportion of the world’s population lives. Adaptation to its impacts ought to be a key focus for planning and policymaking in highly vulnerable countries like Australia. This responsibility, however, has been largely left to local councils with mixed results. This leaves substantial parts of the population at risk where adaptation plans are lacking. Even worse, since the impacts of climate change do not respect jurisdictional boundaries, there is a spill-over risk where good adaptation planning by one council may be undermined by the lack of action in an adjacent council. These risks can be reduced if state and federal governments provide more consistent support and guidance. This paper takes an integrated approach in comparing the relevant legislation, policies, plans, and strategies related to coastal management across the national and state/territory jurisdictions in Australia. The findings indicate that there are major differences, with some states (South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland) having more detailed policies and plans for addressing sea level rise and coastal flooding. The findings have implications beyond Australia, particularly for those countries with more devolved or federal systems of government, and provide key lessons for adaptation to climate change. Key policy insights In the absence of national guidance and leadership, climate adaptation responses will remain uneven across jurisdictions placing more of the population at risk and undermining what adaptation plans there are. National, state, and territory policies or plans are more effective if they are consistent over time, but they are undermined by reversals when governments change between political parties that have widely varying views on climate change. Effective long-term adaptation policymaking and planning therefore require a bipartisan commitment and consistent political will across the major political parties to prioritize the problem and commit significant public resources to a response.

An urban modelling framework for climate resilience in low-resource neighbourhoods

Climate predictions indicate a strong likelihood of more frequent, intense heat events. Resource-vulnerable, low-income neighbourhood populations are likely to be strongly impacted by future climate change, especially with respect to an energy burden. In order to identify existing and new vulnerabilities to climate change, local authorities need to understand the dynamics of extreme heat events at the neighbourhood level, particularly to identify those people who are adversely affected. A new comprehensive framework is presented that integrates human and biophysical data: occupancy/behaviour, building energy use, future climate scenarios and near-building microclimate projections. The framework is used to create an urban energy model for a low-resource neighbourhood in Des Moines, Iowa, US. Data were integrated into urban modelling interface (umi) software simulations, based on detailed surveys of residents’ practices, their buildings and near-building microclimates (tree canopy effects, etc.). The simulations predict annual and seasonal building energy use in response to different climate scenarios. Preliminary results, based on 50 simulation runs with different variable combinations, indicate the importance of using locally derived building occupant schedules and point toward increased summer cooling demand and increased vulnerability for parts of the population. Practice relevanceTo support planning responses to increased heat, local authorities need to ascertain which neighbourhoods will be negatively impacted in order to develop appropriate strategies. Localised data can provide good insights into the impacts of human decisions and climate variability in low-resource, vulnerable urban neighbourhoods. A new detailed modelling framework synthesises data on occupant–building interactions with present and future urban climate characteristics. This identifies the areas most vulnerable to extreme heat using future climate projections and community demographics. Cities can use this framework to support decisions and climate-adaptation responses, especially for low-resource neighbourhoods. Fine-grained and locally collected data influence the outcome of combined urban energy simulations that integrate human–building interactions and occupancy schedules as well as microclimate characteristics influenced by nearby vegetation.

Cultivating climate justice: Green infrastructure and suburban disadvantage in Australia

Green infrastructure has recently risen to international prominence for its purported capacity to enhance urban sustainability, and particularly to modulate ambient temperatures in the context of climate change. We assess whether residents in a sub-tropical Australian city perceive green infrastructure as an effective climate adaptation response for reducing vulnerability to heat stress. Gold Coast City has pursued urban densification policies, such as reducing block sizes and increasing building heights, to accommodate rapid population growth. Little attention has been given to the combined impact of local heat island effects and global climate change upon lower-income residents in the city's suburban fringe, including rising energy costs associated with cooling homes. The study has three aims: to assess whether social disadvantage is associated with (1) concern about climate change impacts; (2) perceptions about the potential of green infrastructure to offer potential climate-adaptive benefits; and (3) the desire for more urban greening in a working class suburb. We used a mail-back survey to elicit information related to cooling dwellings, awareness of, and concern about, climate change impacts, perceptions of the benefits of green infrastructure, and desire for more urban greening. Results indicate that despite their vulnerability to heat stress, comparatively disadvantaged residents are no more concerned about climate change; nor are they any more inclined to encourage local government to enhance neighbourhood greenery. These residents are, if anything, less likely to perceive benefits of urban greening. Our findings indicate that cultivating support for green infrastructure in disadvantaged neighbourhoods will require parallel efforts to redress inequality.