An assessment of the integration of coastal hazard risk into local government strategic and adaptation planning in SA
South Australia’s coastal settlements are increasingly exposed to extreme weather events and rising sea levels. They need to adapt to a changing climate.
This desk-top study investigates the embeddedness of coastal hazard risk into councils’ strategic planning frameworks because this indicates both awareness and commitment by councils (and their constituents) to respond to a changing change. Publicly available coastal council reports serve as the foundation of this study.
The outcome is a state synthesis presenting a high-level observation of current capacity of coastal councils to adapt to changing climatic conditions. Almost 80% of coastal councils anticipate being affected by coastal hazards by 2100. This synthesis reveals differences across councils in terms of their experience of coastal hazard; integration of coastal hazard risk into planning frameworks; and stages of adaptation planning.
Download the executive summary
For the access to the full report or sections of the report, please contact the SA Department for Environment and Water.
South Australian Bushfire Legal Services: Review of current practices
In the aftermath of a disaster the volume of legal issues faced by a community increases significantly. The provision of effective post-disaster legal services requires an evidence base for service models built on clear documentation and testing of pilot programs. The CASPR group was commissioned by the South Australian Attorney General’s Department to evaluate the South Australian Bushfire Legal Project, piloted following the bushfires of January 2020.
CASPR’s review identified that international best practice in post-disaster service delivery is shaped by three interlocking factors: best practice, service delivery, and the importance of tailoring the delivery across the disaster lifecycle. When the key elements of these features combine, the type and standard of service provided is going to be of the highest level. The Legal Project was benchmarked against a framework informed by these findings.
Overall, the program was found to have excellent feedback and impact across communities. The recommendations laid out in the report can guide future implementation of both pre- and post- disaster services. The report adds to CASPR’s body of research into climate and disaster resilience, which looks to build resilience to the effects of climate change at all levels from community, to federal government and international partnerships.
Evidence-based coordination of national climate resilience: Briefing report
This report presents the results and implications of a systematic review of academic, government and nongovernment organisation literature on climate security and climate resilience in the Indo- Pacific published between 2014 and 2019.
Climate security can be greatly enhanced through the integration of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. However, there are conceptual, operational and technical challenges to integrating these fields. Policy champions are needed across governance networks to advance this goal.
A central constituent of well-integrated climate resilient security governance will be appropriately designed systems and resources for sharing evidence within and between government institutions and their partners. However, the absence of key information, limited quality and poor data availability continue to be central challenges.
Our review suggests a critical need to maintain and enhance existing governance structures, processes and institutions, and the physical infrastructure they administer, in order to improve the adaptive capacity of the Indo-Pacific region as a whole.
Geostrategic Futures in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica: Executive report
Rapid political, social and environmental change presents challenges for the management of Arctic and Antarctic regions. Climate change is already affecting national security and has implications for defence planning in Australia and the Antarctic region. This project delivered a two-day symposium and professional development short course, which provided evidence-based, policy-relevant expertise derived from managing challenges in the Arctic, and explored how this might be applied in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
This report provides an overview of the key outcomes of the Defence Strategic Policy Grant funded project. Focussing on cross-cutting themes in relation to southern circumpolar policymaking, the project promoted a whole-of-government coordination approach to national and military mobilisation, and was particularly concerned with Defence’s role in building whole-of-nation resilience.
The recommended directions for future dialogue and further professional development on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean include investigation of the implications of polar tourism, the role of science diplomacy, the exploration of additional international perspectives including from the UK, Russia and China, and more detailed elaboration of military perspectives on the issues covered by the symposium.