Adaptation is the poor cousin of the climate change challenge - the glamour of international debate is around global mitigation agreements, while the bottom-up activities of adaptation, carried out in community halls and local government offices, are often overlooked. Yet, as international forums fail to deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the world is realising that effective adaptation will be essential across all sectors to deal with the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The need to understand how to adapt effectively, and to develop appropriate adaptation options and actions, is becoming increasingly urgent.

This book reports the current state of knowledge on climate change adaptation, and seeks to expose and debate key issues in adaptation research and practice. It is framed around a number of critical areas of adaptation theory and practice, including:

• Advances in adaptation thinking,
• Enabling frameworks and policy for adaptation,
• Engaging and communicating with practitioners,
• Key challenges in adaptation and development,
• Management of natural systems and agriculture under climate change,
• Ensuring water security under a changing climate,
• Urban infrastructure and livelihoods, and
• The nexus between extremes, disaster management and adaptation.

It includes contributions from many of the leading thinkers and practitioners in adaptation today. The book is based on key contributions from the First International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation ‘Climate Adaptation Futures’, held on the Gold Coast, Australia, in June 2010. That three-day meeting of over 1000 researchers and practitioners in adaptation from 50 countries was the first of its kind.

Readership: The book is essential reading for a wide range of individuals involved in climate change adaptation, including:

• Researchers,
• Communication specialists,
• Decision-makers and policy makers (e.g. government staff, local council staff),
• On-ground adaptation practitioners (e.g. aid agencies, government workers, NGOs),
• Postgraduate and graduate students, and
• Consultants.

Jean Palutikof is the Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) where she has built a national program of adaptation research, communication and partnerships. Prior to joining NCCARF she managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability). Her research interests focus on climate change impacts, and the application of climatic data to economic and planning issues.

Mark Stafford Smith is Science Director of CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship, where he oversees the science in a highly interdisciplinary program of research on many aspects of adapting to climate change. His disciplinary background is in drylands systems ecology, management and policy.

Andrew Ash is the director of CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation National Research Flagship, overseeing a nationwide portfolio of research projects, partnerships and collaborations. He works closely with government agencies, businesses and communities on the need to adapt to unavoidable climate change.

Sarah Boulter is a Research Fellow with NCCARF where she works on synthesis and communication of adaptation research. Her research background includes studies of biodiversity and reproductive ecology of forested systems and the impacts of climate change.

Daniela Guitart is a Research Assistant with NCCARF. She has conducted research on climate change adaptation measures for terrestrial biodiversity, and on community gardens including their contribution to food security and agro-biodiversity conservation.

Martin Parry is a visiting Professor at The Centre for Environmental Policy and visiting Research Fellow at The Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. Previously he was Co-Chair of Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has held several Professorial positions at University of East Anglia, University College London, the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham. 

Marie Waschka is the former Knowledge Communication Manager with NCCARF and in this role established a range of mechanisms to promote and enable the exchange of information to support climate change adaptation. This included the establishment of eight Australian Adaptation Research Networks, and organisation of the Climate Adaptation Futures Conference.

List of Contributors

Preface

Part 1: Introduction

1. The past, present and future of adaptation: setting the context and naming the challenges
J. Palutikof, M. Parry, M. Stafford Smith, A. J. Ash, S. L. Boulter and M. Waschka

2. Uncertainty/limits to adaptation/adapting to +4°C
S. H. Schneider

Part 2: Advances in adaptation thinking

3. Adaptation research: community, science or discipline?
A. Ash and M. Stafford Smith

4. Food security under a changing climate: frontiers of science or adaptation frontiers?
S. M. Howden, R. A. Nelson and S. J. Crimp

5. Emerging dimensions of fair process for adaptation decision-making
N. W. Adger

6. Conversations on adaptation effectiveness
R.C. Kay, A. Haines, C. Rosenzweig, W. Steffen and B. Thom

7. Minimising the risk of maladaptation: a framework for analysis
J. Barnett and S. J. O'Neill

Part 3: Enabling frameworks and policy for adaptation

8. How much adaptation: are existing policy and institutions enough?
S. Dovers

9. Bridging the science-policy interface: informing climate governance in the US
D. M. Liverman

10. Wise adaptation to climate change: the view from Japan
N. Mimura

11. Scenarios for picturing a future adapted to +4°C
M. Stafford Smith

12. Creating legislative frameworks for adaptation
J. McDonald

13. Natural hazards and insurance
S. Schuster

Part 4: Engaging with stakeholders

14. Communication of information for adaptation
M. Waschka and S. Torok

Case Study 1: Designer guidance: climate change information for New Zealand decision-makers
J. Knauf

Case Study 2: Evidence based media: a communication approach for effective climate adaptation
S. McCormick

Case Study 3 Indigenous people and climate change adaptation: engagement through tailored communication, research and monitoring
E. L. Woodward

15. Fostering community acceptance of managed retreat in New Zealand
A. Vandenbeld

16. Community engagement to resolve climate adaptation conflicts: utilising consensus building, joint fact-finding strategies, and cognitive frames analysis
J. Prior

17. Shared learning on adapting to climate change in south-east British Columbia, Canada
S. Cohen, M. Laurie, I. Liepa, T. Murdock, C. Pearce, E. Pond, O. Schroth and J. Zukiwsky

18. Cultural dimensions of climate change adaptation: indigenous knowledge and future adaptive management in East Kimberley, Australia
S. Leonard and M. Parsons

Part 5: Key challenges in adaptation and development
19. Adaptation, development, and the community
J. Ayers and S. Huq

20. Climate change and sustainable development in Botswana: towards a framework for adaptation
O. P. Dube

21. The challenge of adaptation that meets the needs of low-income urban dwellers
D. Dodman

22. Migration doesn't have to be a failure to adapt: an escape from environmental determinism
F. Gemenne

23. Climate change adaptation pathways: insights from case studies in South Africa, Canada and the Pacific Islands
F. Crick, J. Wandel, N. Maclellan and K.Vincent

Part 6: Natural systems and agricultural production

24. Ecosystem impacts and adaptation
A. Hobday and G. Midgley

25. Nature's technology: an ecosystem-based approach to adaptation
C. Cowan

Case Study 4: Adaptation strategies of coffee producers in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico to climate variability and change
C. Conde, A. Monterroso, G.Rosales and M.Pérez

26. Adaptation measures to climate change in the Mongolian livestock sector

B. Punsalmaa, B. Buyndalai and B. Nyamsuren

Part 7: Water security

27. Addressing water security in China: screening for climate impacts and adaptation responses
J. Xia, T. Tanner and I. Holman

28. Drought proofing rural economies in semi-arid regions: lessons from Northeast Brazil
A. Magalhães

29. Changing monsoon pattern and its impact on water resources in Himalaya: responses and adaptation
P. C. Tiwari and B. Joshi

Part 8: Urban infrastructure and livelihoods

30. Adapting to climate change in cities
S. Mehrotra, J. A. Carmin, A. Fenech, H. Fünfgeld, Y. Labane, J. Li, R. Roggema F. Thomalla and C. Rosenzweig

31. A Bayesian network approach to investigating climate change and commodity price change impacts on human well-being: a case study of employment from Queensland, Australia
T. Lynam, J. Langridge, A. Langston and Y. Maru

Case Study 5: Adaptation responses to agricultural change and increasing salinisation in the Mekong Delta, Viet Nam
O. Dun

Case Study 6 Adaptation to climate change impacts on buildings and infrastructure: electricity infrastructure
J. Riesz and J. Gilmore

Case Study 7: Adaptation to climate change impacts on buildings and infrastructure: building energy efficiency and mitigation effectiveness
X. Wang, D. Chen and Z. Ren

Part 9: Extremes, disaster management and adaptation

32. Extreme event risk and climate change adaptation: improving the knowledge base and building capacity
M. Woolf, J. Schneider and M. Hazelwood

33. Linking disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: a good practice project in Jakarta, Indonesia
F. Dwirahmadi, S. Rutherford, W. Ulrich and C. Chu

Index