Responding to multiple climate-linked stressors in a remote island context: The example of Yadua Island, Fiji

Martin, Pierick C M; Nunn, Patrick D.; Leon, Javier X.; Tindale, Neil

doi:10.1016/j.crm.2018.04.003

Cited by 41 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Longer-onset environmental changes, as are more commonly linked to climate change, are typically recognized less readily although several (coastal) villages had observed the progressive erosion and submergence of their coast. At Denimanu on Yadua Island, the powerful waves during Tropical Cyclone Evan (December 2012) removed several metres from the fringe of the coastal plain, including two rows of houses, which resulted in one of Fiji's first relocations in January 2014; a landslide behind the village in December 2016 carried away school classrooms (Martin et al 2018). Shoreline loss was especially remarked upon at Denimanu, Galoa, Koroinasolo, Logana, Naivaka, Naviqiri and Yaqaga ( Figure A3B above).…”

Section: Appendix a Detailed Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These effects include shoreline erosion and increasing instances of coastal-lowland flooding as well as groundwater salinization (Nunn 2013). Over the last 20-50 years, the combined effect of these processes has resulted in a progressive loss of (usable) coastal land which has impacted livelihoods in rural areas like those in the study area in and off western Vanua Levu Island (Charan et al 2017;Dumaru 2010;Martin et al 2018;Piggott-McKellar et al 2019b).…”

Section: The Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring Peripherality as a Proxy for Autonomous Community Coping Capacity: A Case Study from Bua Province, Fiji Islands, for Improving Climate Change Adaptation

Nunn

Kumar

2019

Social Sciences

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Over the past thirty years, externally-driven interventions for climate-change adaptation in rural Pacific Island contexts have largely failed to be effective or sustained. One reason is that traditional (culturally-grounded) autonomous community coping capacity has been overlooked, many external agencies viewing all such communities as both homogenous and helpless. A community’s autonomous coping capacity can be proxied by peripherality, a measure of the degree to which a particular community in archipelagic (island) countries engages with core agendas. In order to gauge the depth, breadth and efficacy of autonomous coping capacity, three indices of community peripherality were developed from research within thirteen communities in (peripheral-biased) Bua Province in Fiji. Index 1 concerns geography (travel time/cost to town), Index 2 concerns population and employment (community size, age distribution, employment), and Index 3 concerns tradition and global awareness (mobile phones per capita, traditional/western healthcare preferences, inherent coping capacity, diet, water and energy security). Mapping of Indices 1–3 allows the nature of community peripherality in Bua to be captured using a readily-reproducible tool for rapid assessment in similar contexts. It is demonstrated that an understanding of peripherality (as a proxy for autonomous community coping capacity) can inform the design of future interventions for climate-change adaptation.

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Section: Appendix a Detailed Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Peripherality as a Proxy for Autonomous Community Coping Capacity: A Case Study from Bua Province, Fiji Islands, for Improving Climate Change Adaptation

Nunn

Kumar

2019

Social Sciences

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“…Substantial floods, during which one-third or more of Brisbane city was inundated, occurred in 1841, 1844, 1890, 1893, 1898, 1974 and January 2011. Reconstruction of damage caused by floods costs some $100 million per year [32]. In addition to financial costs, the 1893 flood was associated with the loss of 35 lives, the 1974 flood with 14 deaths and more than 300 people injured; and the 2011 flood included 33 deaths (three others are still missing).…”

Section: Co-existmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to financial costs, the 1893 flood was associated with the loss of 35 lives, the 1974 flood with 14 deaths and more than 300 people injured; and the 2011 flood included 33 deaths (three others are still missing). The reconstruction of Brisbane from just this last flood exceeded $5 billion [18,32].…”

Section: Co-existmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change Adaptation Options for Coastal Communities and Local Governments

Sinay

Carter

2020

Climate

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Extreme weather events and failure to adapt to the likely impacts of climate change are two of the most significant threats to humanity. Therefore, many local communities are preparing adaptation plans. Even so, much of what was done has not been published in the peer-reviewed literature. This means that consideration of adaptation options for local communities is limited. With the objective of assisting in the development of adaptation plans, we present 80 adaptation options suitable for coastal communities that can be applied by local governments. They are a catena of options from defend to co-exist and finally, retreat that progresses as impacts become less manageable. Options are organized according to their capacity to protect local properties and infrastructure, natural systems, food production, availability of fresh and drinking water and well-being of the local population, as these are likely to be affected by climate change. To respond to multiple threats, ‘soft’ options, such as awareness raising, planning, political articulation and financial incentives, insurance and professional skills enhancement, can be encouraged immediately at relatively low cost and are reversible. For specific threats, options emphasize change in management practices as pre-emptive measures. Key audiences for this work are communities and local governments starting to consider priority actions to respond to climate change impacts.

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“…Socio-economic conditions and non-earthquake related factors that may have influenced them were documented, and contextual information supplied the review of secondary data. Repeated field visits, and documentation of changes in the community through parallel research helped empirically ground the analysis [76], and is consistent with other studies of resilience and transformation [77,78].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 63%

Transformations for Resilient Rural Futures: The Case of Kaikōura, Aotearoa-New Zealand

2018

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On 14 November 2016, a magnitude (M w ) 7.8 earthquake struck the small coastal settlement of Kaikōura, Aotearoa-New Zealand. With an economy based on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, Kaikōura was immediately faced with significant logistical, economic, and social challenges caused by damage to critical infrastructure and lifelines, essential to its main industries. Massive landslips cut off road and rail access, stranding hundreds of tourists, and halting the collection, processing and distribution of agricultural products. At the coast, the seabed rose two metres, limiting harbour-access to high tide, with implications for whale watching tours and commercial fisheries. Throughout the region there was significant damage to homes, businesses, and farmland, leaving owners and residents facing an uncertain future. This paper uses qualitative case study analysis to explore post-quake transformations in a rural context. The aim is to gain insight into the distinctive dynamics of disaster response mechanisms, focusing on two initiatives that have emerged in direct response to the disaster. The first examines the ways in which agriculture, food harvesting, production and distribution are being reimagined with the potential to enhance regional food security. The second examines the rescaling of power in decision-making processes following the disaster, specifically examining the ways in which rural actors are leveraging networks to meet their needs and the consequences of that repositioning on rural (and national) governance arrangements. In these and other ways, the local economy is being revitalised, and regional resilience enhanced through diversification, capitalising not on the disaster but the region's natural, social, and cultural capital. Drawing on insights and experience of local stakeholders, policy-and decision-makers, and community representatives we highlight the diverse ways in which these endeavours are an attempt to create something new, revealing also the barriers which needed to be overcome to reshape local livelihoods. Results reveal that the process of transformation as part of rural recovery must be grounded in the lived reality of local residents and their understanding of place, incorporating and building on regional social, environmental, and economic characteristics. In this, the need to respond rapidly to realise opportunities must be balanced with the community-centric approach, with greater recognition given to the contested nature of the decisions to be made. Insights from the case examples can inform preparedness and recovery planning elsewhere, and provide a rich, real-time example of the ways in which disasters can create opportunities for reimagining resilient futures.

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Responding to multiple climate-linked stressors in a remote island context: The example of Yadua Island, Fiji

Cited by 41 publications

References 41 publications

Measuring Peripherality as a Proxy for Autonomous Community Coping Capacity: A Case Study from Bua Province, Fiji Islands, for Improving Climate Change Adaptation

Measuring Peripherality as a Proxy for Autonomous Community Coping Capacity: A Case Study from Bua Province, Fiji Islands, for Improving Climate Change Adaptation

Climate Change Adaptation Options for Coastal Communities and Local Governments

Transformations for Resilient Rural Futures: The Case of Kaikōura, Aotearoa-New Zealand

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