Projects
Since 2006, SSCCRN has been actively involved in establishing or participating in a number of projects that aim to address the social contexts of
climate change. They include:
project 1 - Sea Level Rise Impacts on Clarence Foreshore, TAS
project 2 - Communication Strategy - Kingborough Council, TAS
project 3 - Risk perception studies of local government
project 4 - Institutional Analysis Project - local AUS government
project 5 - Discourse studies - Communication of Climate Change
project 6 - Social-ecological resilience studies - non-Indigenous and Indigenous abalone fishing
project 7 - Environmental Foreign Policy and Climate Change
project 8 - Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change
project 9 - Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change
project 10 - A climate of interdisciplinarity: cross-discipline student learning about climate change
Integrated assessment and responses in sea level rise impacts on Clarence Foreshore, Tasmania.
Project Brief:
Clarence Council, located near Hobart, has commissioned a socio-economic assessment and response project for climate change impacts on their foreshore.
Based on a risk assessment methodology, the outputs from this project will inform the development of a coastal management strategy. The strategy will
address climate change impacts such as storm surges, coastal erosion and sea level rise that may occur over the next 20 to 100 years.
The planners and engineers for this region have already experienced the effects of sea level rise on their foreshores and efforts to develop strategies to
respond is supported by the local community. The support is forthcoming because of the damage already sustained by sea level rise, which has included
erosion and flooding. The social and institutional assessment project will complement and integrate with a scientific consultancy that involves identifying
the hazards, analyzing the risks, evaluating the risks and identifying and assessing possible responses including their costs. This project is ongoing and
due for completion in 2008.
The SSCCRN was commissioned to conduct the literature review component of this project. The literature review focuses on the response to events and change
in coastal areas including long term erosion, storm events, sea level rise/inundation and shorter term flooding, whether specifically attributable to
climate change or not.
The emphasis for the literature search was not on prediction of events, the mechanics of impacts or the physical effects but upon the social and economic
impacts and the response to impacts.
The findings of the review provisionally identified a number of themes including:
• Ethical issues/fair treatment/equitable sharing of risks, burdens; inequality of impacts
• Perceptions of risk and uncertainty and how they are analysed and communicated
• Selection of strategies and solutions and policy setting in the context of a high level of uncertainty
• The limits of resilience and the need for adaptive responses rather than business as usual
• Coping mechanisms (social/institutional as much as physical) in stressed situations; enhancing adaptability
• A summary of some of the economic findings (scale and duration of impact, transfers from other parts of society/the economy)
The findings of the literature review will be combined with the input from the technical and scientific work to inform the next steps of the project. The
consultants on the technical and scientific project for Clarence will provide information on the expected physical impacts of change (erosion, inundation,
storm surges, etc.), their probability of occurrence, location and extent and the practicality of different response strategies.
This will be ongoing.
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Risk Assessment Methodology and Communication Strategy - Kingborough Council.
Project Brief:
The State of the Environment Report for Tasmania (RPDC, 2004) identified the likely hazards associated with climate change. These include a higher sea
level, more frequent and more severe storm events and low-pressure systems, changes in short term climatic cycles and an increased number of high rainfall
events.
There is evidence that sea levels are rising and it is assumed that this will continue to occur as a result of climate change. This constitutes the most
obvious risk for local government – in regard to protecting public infrastructure and providing appropriate development control.
Potentially increased flooding and bushfire hazards must also be considered. There is substantial uncertainty about future rainfall changes – however it
appears likely that the amount of rainfall per storm will increase, even if the overall precipitation in a local area decreases. Therefore, vegetation may
be drier and river flooding may increase. Past flooding records may understate the risk of future flooding.
Predicting the future is difficult and so a precautionary approach is required. There is a need to reduce the scientific uncertainties and develop
responses that anticipate the most likely future situation. For coastal councils in Tasmania, such as Kingborough or Clarence, the issue of sea level rise
is the most pressing.
The risk assessment issue mainly relates to a mapping exercise to identify areas at risk across the municipality from flooding, storm surge and bushfire –
all of which are influenced by climate change. Local government opportunity to address potential natural risk is through development control. Planning
decisions need to be well informed and good natural resource hazard information is essential.
Research Objectives:
(i) To develop a risk assessment methodology for dealing with climate change, appropriate for application within local government infrastructure management
and development planning.
(ii) To develop communication tools about climate change issues appropriate for dissemination by and to local governments.
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Risk Perceptions Studies: Local Government, Tasmania.
Project Brief:
During 2005 – 2006 the SSCCRN conducted institutional research through a risk perceptions study, to assess and analyse the flexibility of coastal local
government regions in Tasmania to respond to predicted climate change impacts. Tasmania, as with the rest of Australia is predicted to feel the effects of
climate change, particularly sea level rise.
Qualitative interviews were conducted using both snowball and purposive sampling techniques of 13 coastal local governments within Tasmania. Planners and
engineers were interviewed in each case.
To synthesise the results thematic and conversation analysis was applied. Evaluation of this project was by the use of triangulation, and face validity was
used to ensure validity and reliability of the information.
Research findings indicate that local governments in Tasmania perceive the risks of climate change in four areas:
(i) relating to the issue generally;
(ii) day-to-day management;
(iii) management responsibility; and
(iv) acceptance of climate change. While all local government planners and engineers perceived climate change as a global problem, perceptions varied
widely as to the risks posed to Tasmania. Responses included confusion about likely changes per se, uncertainty about long term regional impacts plus
positive reflections on the opportunities climate change might provide to Tasmania.
Findings of this project are being published in a book about Integrated Coastal Zone Management (Blackwells Press).
View a draft copy.
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Institutional Analysis Project - Local Government in Australia.
Project Brief:
Climate change is an example of a global systemic problem; systemic as its causes are initiated anywhere on earth, and the effects felt worldwide
(Frederick and Gleick 1999, Wigley 1999). For coastal communities sea level rise (Neumann et al. 2000) and coral bleaching (Buddemeier et al. 2004) are the
most often cited effects of climate change, but its effects also include changes in snow melts regimes, hydrological cycles, fish stocks migration,
nutrient and heat flows on species (Kennedy et al.2002).
The costs of addressing climate change however are likely to fall disproportionately on local government, industries, communities, and workers, and there
is a need to explore ways to minimize the adverse impacts (Greenwald et al. 2001). Much work has been undertaken in relation to equity issues regarding the
implementation of climate change strategies (Chandler et al. 2002, Sathayea et al. 1999, Claussen and McNeilly 1998) and policies such as Kyoto
(Aldy et al. 2003). However, to date little work has been done to assess and analyse strategic planning responses by local governments and communities in
relation to climate change at local scales.
This project aims to focus on the key institutional issues facing coastal communities in relation to climate change, and seeks to understand how global
problems are perceived at local levels and effected at local scales. This project thus aims to establish some of the policy and community parameters that
influence decisions about climate change at the local government scale.
What kind of legislative and institutional arrangements exist at community level to facilitate climate change actions and strategies within local
governments and residents? What flexibility exists within those institutional arrangements at local government levels to enable local councils and industry
to respond effectively to this issue? In order to make sense of these questions, and the socio-economic implications therefore of climate change at local
scales, this project builds on Pielke (2005) and Orlove (2005) who argue that climate change and human adaptation to it must be understood in terms of how
different policy bases are responding to climate change.
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Discourse Studies.
Project Brief:
Discourse is a method of documenting peoples’ perspectives and expressions of values and the ways in which such perspectives reflect different aspects of
the relationship between knowledge and power - source (Dryzek 1997; Mills 1997).
Discourse analysis therefore is not just about language but also about discursive practice; the process of interaction between people that practice that
same language form - source (Foucault, 1972, p.80).
Discourse implies a dialectical relationship between a discursive event and the situation, institutions and social structures that frame it. That is, there
is a direct relationship between what is being said (discourse) and what is being done (action) which together constitute discursive events.
Discourse can also be used as a tool to achieve conflict resolution in environmental management (Myerson and Rydin 1996) In the Australian state of New
South Wales (NSW), research that reviewed community reactions to media reports concerning irrigation issues in north-west NSW then applied discourse
techniques to interrogate those reactions, found key differences in perceptions (Butteriss et al 2001).
Understanding that these differences existed and what their nature were allowed for a better understandings between the protagonists. As such discourse
analysis can be used to assist in the resolution of environmental conflict and further, be a mediatory tool in public policy development, dispute
resolution and industry public relations analysis.
This project applied discourse analysis as a tool, to investigate the flexibility and capacity of local governments to respond to the climate change
effects predicted by the science. The project highlights how the integration of social science methodologies with science creates the conditions where
inter-disciplinarity can be used as a tool for forging action on climate change.
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To investigate the social-ecological resilience of the Tasmanian Abalone Industry to the impacts of climate change.
Project Brief:
Climate change impacts within fisheries is emerging as an important issue (Hobday et al 2006).
Marine species such as abalone, Tasmania’s largest and high value fishery (which is 25% of global production (TAC 2007)) are particularly at risk.
Fishers and processors impacted will include commercial operators and Aboriginal peoples who currently conduct subsistence harvesting of abalone. Building
on international studies into the social-ecological resilience of societies to climate change impacts (Adger 1999, Adger 2003, Berkes and Jolly 2001,
Tylera et al. 2007, Dow et al. 2007, Few 2007, Fussel and Klein 2006), this project aims to investigate the social-ecological resilience of the Tasmanian
Abalone Industry to the impacts of climate change.
It has three aims;
(i) To adapt the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) risk assessment framework for climate change, and conduct a vulnerability assessment
of the abalone industry in relation to socio-ecological factors;
(ii) to undertake oral histories of commercial and Aboriginal abalone fishers with a view to understanding the social impact on the industry and;
(iii) to undertake a risk perception study of the Tasmanian Abalone industry in relation to climate change.
Together, these data sets will enable an understanding of the social-ecological resilience of the industry, what risks it faces in the future.
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Environmental Foreign Policy and Climate Change.
This project has entailed undertaking media and historical analysis of Australia papers on ther issue of climate change over the last fifteen years. One
output from this research has been collaboration with the University of Hong Kong, in contributing to a book on foreign policy and climate change. The
abstract and introduction for this paper is below:
Australia at a Discursive Crossroads: Climate Change and Foreign Policy - Dr. Melissa Nursey-Bray.
"The last fifteen years has seen a significant shift in Australian foreign policy on climate change. Drawing on media reports, interviews, parliamentary and
policy documents, this chapter uses historical discourse analysis as both a theoretical and methodological tool to investigate the ways in which different
discourse coalotions have affected and impacted Australia's climate-related foreign policy. The chapter focuses on key discursive themes, such as the
disjuncture between discourse about economy and environment, the relationship between domestic and international policy on climate change and the
ratification of Kyoto. The author argues that anomalies between the different policy stands at domestic and international levels are a result of a
conscious and strategic manipulation of the discourse about climate change, the economy and Australia's place in the world. In the process, she explores
the nexus between discursive strategy and material practice in environmental foreign policy. The 2007 Federal election provides a case study focus for
investigation of these issues."
Excerpt from the Introduction:
While climate change is now a mainstream issue within environmental discourse, its resolution remains hotly contested at international, national and state
levels. As climate change has evolved from being constructed as environmentalist and/or extremist hype into a scientifically grounded claim, the Australian
government has been forced to engage with the issue. Indeed in 2007, the Australian Federal election was touted as the world’s first climate change
election.
This chapter reviews Australia’s foreign policy agenda in relation to climate change over the last 15 years. Through the use of discourse approaches, the
research for this chapter aimed to further understand climate change as a foreign policy problem and seeks to examine how far climate change has become a
central issue not just in domestic environmental discourse, but political strategy and foreign policy.
The research reveals the significant role discourses played in the establishment and implementation of climate change agendas within Australian foreign
policy, and how they were used to progress domestic agendas, as well as consolidate the most important aspect of Australia’s foreign policy; its
relationship with the US.
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Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change.
SSCCRN has been invited to be part of a book project on the interdisciplinatry aspecst fo climate change. Below is the summary written by the editors for
the book is reproduced followed by the chapter of the book that SSCCRN will submit to this project.
Excerpt - Book "Interdisciplinary Aspects of Climate Change"
"In the history of science there have been only a few issues which have mobilized much the attention of scientists and policy-makers alike as the issue of
climate change currently does.
The release of the 4th Assessment produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the summer of 2007 has put the reality of human-
induced global warming beyond any doubt. In addition, the high-level event on Climate Change held at the UN Headquarters, New York (24 September 2007), the
thirteenth United Nations Climate Change Conference held on the island of Bali (Indonesia) on 3-14 December 2007 and the various strategies and actions
plans which are being prepared and implemented all over the world, indicate that the emphasis to this topic will continue to dominate the scientific agenda
for decades to come.
Although the subject matter of climate change is regarded as a critical issue and sound scientific knowledge is needed in order to address the problem in a
holistic way, there is a paucity of academic publications specifically focusing on the different aspects of climate change.
The book "Interdisciplinary Aspects of Climate Change" will address this need. It will report, document and disseminate experiences, projects and
practical, inter-disciplinary initiatives related to climate change performed by research centres, non-government bodies, international organisations,
practitioners and universities both in the industrialised and developing nations. By means of cases studies and project descriptions, it will offer a
picture of the state-of-the art in the field across the world and demonstrate how much can be achieved by means of interdisciplinary efforts focusing on
matters related to climate change.
The book "Interdisciplinary Aspects of Climate Change" will be published by Peter Lang Scientific Publishers (Frankfurt, New York, Bern, Vienna), which has
published previous volumes of the award-winning series "Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability" which has produced nearly 30 high-impact
books since its creation in 1996."
Chapter Title:
Risk assessment and local government, Tasmania: Applying an interdisciplinary approach to climate change adaptation - Melissa Nursey-Bray, Tony Ferrier,
Rob Palmer.
The State of the Environment Report for Tasmania (RPDC, 2004) identified evidence that sea levels are rising and will continue as a result of climate
change. This constitutes risk for local government in regard to protecting public infrastructure and providing appropriate development control. Planning
decisions need to be well informed and good natural resource hazard information is essential.
Building on previous climate change adaptation research, this project:
(i) developed an inter-disciplinary risk assessment methodology for dealing with climate change for the local government of Kingborough, and
(ii) developed educational tools in relation to sea level rise and coastal vulnerability.
The outcome is a risk assessment tool, specifically designed to be interdisciplinary in both nature and implementation. Work on this project is ongoing.
The risk assessment tool developed adapted an existing risk assessment tool for Queensland local governments, and in determining its applicability, refined
it so it was much more interdisciplinary in nature. The evolution of this tool also brought many different practitioners together, in an attempt to forge
working links across different knowledge domains, both social and scientific in order to develop effective decision making about climate change on the
ground. The project involved all sections of the Kingborough Council and is being run in synchronicity with the State governments Climate Change adaptation
programs.
Research outputs include a user friendly communications tool, a research report to government, the risk assessment tool itself and a more interdisciplinary
approach to dealing with the issue of climate change at local, government levels in Australia. This chapter will outline the progress of this initiative
and lessons learned for building future interdisciplinary projects for dealing with climate change at local government levels.
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Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change.
SSCCRN has been invited submit a number of articles on climate change for an Encyclopedia of Global warming and Climate Change to be published by SAGE
press in 2008. See http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=157229 for details.
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A climate of interdisciplinarity: cross-discipline student learning about climate change.
SSCCRN is also a participant in an education project designed to develop collaborative curricula on climate change. This project has received funding for
this project from a Teaching Development Grant through the University of Tasmania. The project summary is reproduced below:
“This project responds to the need, identified across the higher education sector, to pursue opportunities for collaborative teaching and interdisciplinary
learning, especially in student experience of multidisciplinary study. Taking the complex and pressing issue of climate change, the project develops a
collaborative on-line learning space to be implemented in units across three faculties and the AMC. Based upon an interfaculty teaching collaboration, we
have three project aims.
First, to better enable students to mediate between disciplinary cultures and pedagogies and to critically synthesise disciplinary contributions.
Second, to improve the capacity of students to handle the real-world complexity of issues such as climate change.
Third, to develop a broadly applicable model for cross-discipline teaching collaboration at UTas.”
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