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Resilient Cities pp 379–388Cite as

Climate Change as a Survival Strategy: Soft Infrastructure for Urban Resilience and Adaptive Capacity in Australia’s Coastal Zones

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Part of the book series: Local Sustainability ((LOCAL,volume 1))

Abstract

This paper outlines the conflicts and synergies between risk and resilience approaches to climate change adaptation planning in vulnerable coastal areas of Australia. It examines whether current planning processes shaping vulnerable coastal settlements in Australia are sufficiently informed to build adaptive capacity for their communities under climate change impacts. Considerable research to date has focused on the application of risk management in identifying vulnerabilities and predicted worst-case scenarios. This approach often proposes ‘hard’ infrastructure changes for climate change adaptation. However, little work has been done looking at the processes for implementing and supporting such adaptation strategies while addressing the inherent uncertainty of future climate change impacts. This so-called ‘soft’ infrastructure is critical to building a community’s ability to innovate and prosper while adapting to unforeseen challenges posed by a changing climate. It is argued that introducing concepts of resilience to municipal planning processes for vulnerable coastal settlements, particularly in development control plans (DCP’s) may provide a more comprehensive approach to climate change adaptation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

     Ecosystem services include: provisioning, such as the production of food and water; regulating, such as the control of climate and disease; supporting, such as nutrient cycles and crop pollination; and cultural, such as spiritual and recreational benefits (UNMA 2004).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales (UNSW), 2052, Sydney, Australia

    Nan Chen & Peter Graham

Authors
  1. Nan Chen
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  2. Peter Graham
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Correspondence to Nan Chen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Secretariat, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainabi, Kaiser Friedrich Strasse 7, Bonn, 53113, Germany

    Konrad Otto-Zimmermann

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Chen, N., Graham, P. (2011). Climate Change as a Survival Strategy: Soft Infrastructure for Urban Resilience and Adaptive Capacity in Australia’s Coastal Zones. In: Otto-Zimmermann, K. (eds) Resilient Cities. Local Sustainability, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0785-6_38

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