Karyn Bosomworth

Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation: The Importance of Framing

In the Australian policy context, there has recently been a discernible shift in the discourse used when considering responses to the impacts of current weather extremes and future climate change. Commonly used terminology, such as climate change impacts and vulnerability, is now being increasingly replaced by a preference for language with more positive connotations as represented by resilience and a focus on the ‘strengthening’ of local communities. However, although this contemporary shift in emphasis has largely political roots, the scientific conceptual underpinning for resilience, and its relationship with climate change action, remains contested. To contribute to this debate, the authors argue that how adaptation is framed—in this case by the notion of resilience—can have an important influence on agenda setting, on the subsequent adaptation pathways that are pursued and on eventual adaptation outcomes. Drawing from multi-disciplinary adaptation research carried out in three urban case studies in the State of Victoria, Australia (‘Framing multi-level and multi-actor adaptation responses in the Victorian context’, funded by the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research (2010–2012)), this article is structured according to three main discussion points. Firstly, the importance of being explicit when framing adaptation; secondly, this study reflects on how resilience is emerging as part of adaptation discourse and narratives in different scientific, research and policy-making communities; and finally, the authors reflect on the implications of resilience framing for evolving adaptation policy and practice.

Towards networked governance: improving interagency communication and collaboration for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in Australia

Major disasters, such as bushfires or floods, place significant stress on scarce public resources. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this stress. An integrated approach to disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA) could reduce the stress by encouraging the more efficient use of pooled resources and expertise. A comparative analysis of three extreme climate-related events that occurred in Australia between 2009 and 2011 indicated that a strategy to improve interagency communication and collaboration would be a key factor in this type of policy/planning integration. These findings are in accord with the concepts of Joined-up Government and Network Governance. Five key reforms are proposed: developing a shared policy vision; adopting multi-level planning; integrating legislation; networking organisations; and establishing cooperative funding. These reforms are examined with reference to the related research literature in order to identify potential problems associated with their implementation. The findings are relevant for public policy generally but are particularly useful for CCA and DRM.

Climate change adaptation in public policy: : frames, fire management, and frame reflection

The influence of framing on approaches to climate change adaptation is receiving increased attention. Using case study data, this paper proposes that appreciating how a policy sector currently frames itself can not only facilitate insights into how that sector may frame adaptation but also into a sectors adaptive capacity. From a new institutional perspective, this paper argues therefore that a frame reflective practice can aid policy sectors in building their capacity for adaptive, robust approaches to adaptation planning. A frame reflexive practice could enable policy sectors to appreciate how their current framing directs action towards particular policy options, potentially ignoring others, and how exploring the sectors issues through different frames could reveal a greater array of policy options than currently considered.

Learning From Analyses of Policy Frames and Informal Institutions in the Fire Management Sector of Victoria, Australia

If public policy sectors dealing with natural hazards are to play their part in climate change adaptation, the sectors must themselves be adaptive in their policies and larger governance contexts. Facilitating adaptive governance requires collaboration among many parties in the complex policy domain of natural hazard planning. To benefit from such collaborative processes as well as inquiries, reviews and experience, public sectors need to adopt a reflexive learning approach. Reflexive learning involves explicit consideration of current and alternate policy frames and informal institutions that structure a sector’s governance arrangements, policy options and practices. The case for reflexive learning in enabling an adaptive governance is supported by lessons from a range of literatures. Therefore, this chapter does not discuss lessons from a particular bushfire event. Rather, it argues that for lessons to be learnt from natural hazards and adaptation planning, public policy sectors need a capacity to reflect upon and possibly change the policy frames and informal institutions that structure their current approaches. The chapter will argue this by discussing a study of policy frames and informal institutions of the fire management sector in Victoria, Australia, with a particular focus on the perspectives of middle or ‘street level’ bureaucrats.

The role of social science in the governance and management of wildland fire

Global social-economic and environmental changes are increasing the challenges of wildfire risk management. Addressing these challenges requires perspectives beyond knowledge of the bio-physical dynamics of fire. This Special Section provides some such perspectives, including safety, childrens understanding of the risk, indigenous knowledge of fire, and ‘shared responsibility’. Each paper highlights important challenges and ideas for fire management.

'Transitions in the making': The role of regional boundary organisations in mobilising sustainability transitions under a changing climate

Sustainability under a changing climate requires transitioning away from institutionalised processes, norms and cultures that underpin and reproduce unsustainable practices and development. The volume and diversity of actors, and the closeness and density of interactions and interrelationships, make urban transitions complex, contested and dynamic, challenging established management practices, institutions and governance. Therefore, enabling sustainability transitions requires social processes of adaptive, if not transformative, change and learning, facilitated by improved capacities for working across diverse forms of jurisdiction, scale, knowledge, organisations, landscapes and institutions. Recognition of the challenges inherent in these issues has led to arguments for new forms of governance, such as Transition Management. The dynamic relations between niche and regime have been identified as requiring further analytical attention. In our research, we have identified ‘boundary organisations’ as operating in this space as they work to enable energy and natural resource transitions in Victoria. This paper explores what we are learning about and from these organisations in enabling some of the conditions considered important in the governance of transitions, such as experimentation, long-term thinking and learning by doing across multiple boundaries.

Beyond the tools: supporting adaptation when organisational resources and capacities are in short supply

Climate change adaptation is increasingly concerned with how organisations develop capacity to adapt to uncertain futures. A participatory action research project conducted in Victoria, Australia, examined how health and social service organisations developed their organisational adaptive capacity through the use of adaptation decision-support tools. It can be challenging for any organisation to select and apply a decision-support tool, but this is particularly the case where resources and capacities are limited. For most organisations, climate change is only one of a complex set of dynamic stressors they must consider in meeting organisational goals. This paper shows that while decision-support tools can help co-generate knowledge and facilitate customised organisational adaptation processes, for them to be practically helpful for organisations with limited resources and capacities, intensive collaborative and discursive processes are needed to adjust such tools to fit specific organisational contexts and needs. Facilitators and participatory approaches that enable co-inquiry can play a critical role in supplementing scarce resources and initiating adaptation processes that go well beyond the scope and purpose of the decision-support tool used. Organisations working effectively with decision-support tools to adapt to climate change will need to feel ownership of them and have confidence in modifying them to suit their particular adaptation needs and organisational goals.

Innovative or unrealistic: reflections on the use of landscape architecture visualisations in climate change planning

ABSTRACT Coastal managers and planners face significant challenges in planning for climate change, including the need to act now while developing and implementing adaptively robust plans. A key first stage of such planning involves working with stakeholders to envisage multiple possible futures, even though it can be challenging for people to envisage futures that are markedly different to the present. Landscape architecture visualisations are increasingly used to help address this challenge, but there is limited evaluation of their value in such planning. Drawing on a case study from the highly urbanised Port Philip Bay of Victoria, Australia, this paper presents reflections from coastal managers and planners on the value of participatory development and use of such visualisations in adaptation planning. Findings indicate a tension between the value of visualisations in helping people conceive possible futures and the tendency for those futures to be imagined within current budgetary and political parameters.