Hazard Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation:Community, local government & planning

David KingCentre for Disaster Studies, James Cook University

Are Hazard Resilience & Climate Change Adaptation independent strategies?

How do Community, local government & planners achieve resilience or adaptation ?

Tropical Cyclone Yasi - 2011

Emergency Managementresiliency - A measure of how quickly a system recovers from failures.vulnerability The degree of susceptibility and resilience of the community to environment to hazards COAG strategy - to build disaster resilient communities

Department of Climate ChangeAdaptation – change,Modification to suit Conditions,Adjustment

Vulnerability

Hazard RiskSociety, Community and individualThings we can’t control

ResilienceThings we can control - Types of resilience1. Stability – stable community absorbs stress2. Recovery resilient – bounce back – return to

normalcy3. Transformation – adapt to threat and to change

Brisbane floods volunteer clean up

National Disaster Resilience Strategy – COAG 2010Characteristics of disaster resilient communities, individuals and organisations1. Function well under stress2. Successful adaptation3. Self reliance4. Social capacity

Volunteers building a temporary levee at Charleville

1. Microsystem – where the individual participates directly.2. Mesosystem – microsystem member interactions not individual interactions 3. Exosystem – entities & organisations accessed by the individual or their family 4. Macrosystem – politics, views & customs - the cultural fabric of society.5. Chronosystem – elements of time that relate to events in individual’s environment.

Bronfenbrenner’s systems - a structure to

understand and measure

resilience

Climate Change – increased frequency and intensity of climatic hazardsNeed for purposeful changeAdaptation – adapt to risk – adapt to climate changeCommunity education – knowledge, capacity, willingnessAwareness translated into action strategiesTo prepareTo strengthenTo change and adaptSustainability – resource use & social justice

Organisational adaptation

Local Government, Planners, developers – land use planning

Inheriting past land use decisions

Future growth

Hazard planning

Climate change adaptation

Planning issuesLegacy of past planningCoastal management LegislationHazard zones

Surge and floodAwarenessEvacuationRebuilding

Coastal erosionClimate change Flood Inquiry focus

Coastal Climate change AdaptationProtectAccommodateRetreat

Adaptation

PROTECT – structural (engineered) mitigation“I am not going to do anything, that’s what

council is for”

Sea wall – Machans Beach

Expectations from former planning decisions

AdaptationACCOMODATE – adjust to minimise adversity

“My next house will be on a hill overlooking the ocean, protected by a levee”

Elevated housing option

“The only real strategy is to build higher. I am trying to do that but the flood height is much higher than my lowest floor level and my application has not been allowed… I’m going to buy a

boat”

“I know that this house has been flooded four times, but it makes no difference to me. The river is what Brisbane is all about”

“If you choose to live on the beach you accept some form of risk.. I just knew that if you choose to live within a beach community that you accept that you are likely to experience storm surge or cyclones”

Adaptation

RETREAT – abandon or relocate

Destroyed house – Mission Beach

Displaced Cassowary – Mission Beach

Mortlock Islands Papua New Guinea – surge

Migration as an adaptation strategy

Decommissioning places – settlements and communitiesPlaces on the edgeOutmigration & long term decline

Challenges

• Cost• Amenity• Insurance • Community education• Informed risk• Governance• Planning• The Legacy of former planning decisions• Population growth

Resilience in the face of catastropheAdaptation to an Uncertain FuturePlanning for a positive & optimistic future

Thanks

Acknowledgements – thanks for materials and research data

Helen Boon, Yetta Gurtner, Alison Cottrell, Sharon Harwood, Ken Innes, Carl Ewin all of James Cook Uni

Thanks to Geraldine Li for volunteering me for the Symposium

For references contact david.king@jcu.edu.au