CoastAdapt: an adaptation decision support framework for Australia’s coastal managers

Abstract

Australia's coastline is exposed to climate change and sea-level rise impacts from erosion, inundation, and changes to storm tracks and intensity. It accommodates about 80% of the population. Around 250 local councils are responsible for coastal management, with very different capacities to undertake adaptation. A decision support framework was developed to support coastal managers seeking to understand present-day and future climate change, its impacts and possible response options. Extensive engagement was undertaken with practitioners before commencing the design and at all stages of the build, in order to ensure usefulness and usability. The resulting framework, CoastAdapt (coastadapt.com.au), provides comprehensive guidance and support, including understanding of climate change science, expected impacts, and adaptation options. It contains datasets on historical flooding; present-day coastal sensitivity to erosion; and future climate extremes, sea-level rise, and inundation for each coastal council. A risk management framework supports users through the six stages of adaptation from identifying the challenges through to monitoring and evaluation. The performance of CoastAdapt has been evaluated through 11 6-week test cases with coastal managers in the public and private sectors. In future, if CoastAdapt is to remain a useful resource, it must be seen by practitioners as dynamic, relevant, and current, and on-going resources will be needed to achieve this. Climatic Change (2019) 153:491-507 https://doi.

Co-designing adaptation decision support: meeting common and differentiated needs

“…A new climate information platform, projections and tools have been released which are more focussed on practical usage within the decision-making context than previously (CSIRO and BOM 2017); the relevant federal government department has been investigating how good practice adaptation processes might be incorporated into enhanced cross-sector national guidance; and as an example of this, the department has funded the development of a national coastal adaptation product CoastAdapt (NCCARF 2017b). CoastAdapt was developed in a way that is consistent with the findings and principles from this study, including widespread stakeholder engagement (Palutikof et al 2018).…”

Decision support platforms for climate change adaptation: an overview and introduction

“…Alternatively, funding may be available to support such activities constructed and maintained by organisations with a specific mandate and funding to support adaptation. Examples include government-sponsored activities outlined in this Special Issue, for Europe (Hasse and Kind 2019;Laudien et al 2019;Street et al 2019), for Australia (Palutikof et al 2019a), and for the USA (Gardiner et al 2019). Though these examples emphasise government-funded entities, there are many private organisations and consultancies taking up the mantle of decision support for climate change adaptation, particularly in the USA.…”

“…However, these interactions can be challenging. For example, Palutikof et al (2019a) report that attempts to create an online forum for networking and knowledge and experience sharing within their platform met with only limited success.…”

A three-tier risk assessment process for climate change adaptation at a local scale

“…User testing is an essential step in the development of climate adaptation decision support tools (see Palutikof et al (2019b) for an overview). Although rather few examples of rigorous testing exist, Abrash Walton et al (2015) carried out an independent evaluation of the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, looking at perception and use of the US Climate Resilience Toolkit by 29 climate data end users along the east coast of the USA.…”

“…Therefore, decision makers, whether in public-or private-sector organisations, require a range of climate services that include data and practical methods, as well as tools and guidelines to implement those methods. CoastAdapt (coastadapt.com.au)-an online decision support platform-seeks to deliver to this broad requirement through guidance, information and data to assist Australian coastal practitioners in managing the risks associated with climate change (Palutikof et al 2019b).…”