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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Climbing The Adaptation Planning Ladder: Barriers And Enablers In Municipal Planning, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Climbing The Adaptation Planning Ladder: Barriers And Enablers In Municipal Planning, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Elisabeth M. Hamin
Local municipal governments have a crucial role in helping communities adapt to climate change. Recognizing different levels of climate preparedness, this chapter analyzes what steps communities tend to follow when they move forward on climate adaptation, including prerequisites for planning and the selection of policies. Drawing on content analyses of local climate adaptation plans from the United States (US) and Australia, as well as interviews with municipal planners in both nations, the chapter explores the adaptation policy choices communities are making and explains the range of strategies local governments have used to move forward on a ‘ladder’ of climate adaptation, …
Space For Adapting: Reconciling Adaptation And Mitigation In Local Climate Change Plans, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Space For Adapting: Reconciling Adaptation And Mitigation In Local Climate Change Plans, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Elisabeth M. Hamin
Amid the complexity of actually planning for adaptation and mitigation in cities, spatial form matters. Denser urban environments generally have lower per capita emissions because they enable transit and more efficient heating. At the same time, a larger green infrastructure can be beneficial to adaptation, as it provides room for urban greening, storm and flood water management, and treatment of other ill-effects of climate change. City plans need to reconcile both goals to be fully climate resilient, but to date, there has not been an empirical evaluation on whether the adaptation policies cities are choosing create conflict with mitigative goals. …
Windows Of Opportunity: Addressing Climate Uncertainty Through Adaptation Plan Implementation, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Yaser Abunnasr, Elizabeth Brabec
Windows Of Opportunity: Addressing Climate Uncertainty Through Adaptation Plan Implementation, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Yaser Abunnasr, Elizabeth Brabec
Elisabeth M. Hamin
There is a pressing need for municipalities and regions to undertake adaptation planning that will create urban systems suited to current as well as future climates, but uptake of adaptation has been slow. This is particularly unfortunate in that patterns of urban built form interact with climate change in ways that can reduce, or intensify, the impacts of overall global change. For policy-makers, uncertainty regarding the timing and magnitude of climate change is a significant barrier to implementing adaptation planning. Resiliency theory suggests an approach to evaluating adaptation options for cities that can bring these factors together. The method we …
The Green Infrastructure Transect: An Organizational Framework For Mainstreaming Adaptation Planning Policies, Yaser Abunnasr, Elisabeth M. Hamin
The Green Infrastructure Transect: An Organizational Framework For Mainstreaming Adaptation Planning Policies, Yaser Abunnasr, Elisabeth M. Hamin
Elisabeth M. Hamin
When considering the range of spatial planning actions that cities can take to adapt to climate change, many of them fall under the conceptual umbrella of green infrastructure (GI). GI has been defined as the spatial planning of landscape systems at multiple scales and within varying contexts to provide open space, safeguard natural systems, protect agricultural lands, and ensure ecological integrity for cultural, social, and ecosystem benefits (Benedict andMcMahon, Renew Resour J 20:12–17, 2002, Green infrastructure: linking landscape and communities. Island Press,Washington, DC, 2006; Ahern, Cities of the future. IWA Publishing, London, 2008). While the traditional definition of GI refers …
Regional Conservation Partnerships In New England, Elisabeth M. Hamin
Regional Conservation Partnerships In New England, Elisabeth M. Hamin
Elisabeth M. Hamin
Across New England, a new model of regional collaboration is increasingly being used by land conservation trusts, watershed associations, state agencies and others. Regional conservation partnerships (RCPs) serve multiple purposes, such as coordinating among the various active groups in the region and allowing them to leverage funding and staff capacity. However, their essential missions are the same—protect more land from development. We use interviews, geographic information systems (GIS), and statistical analysis on 20 case studies to document RCP growth and characteristics and to analyze which attributes most contribute to their ability to conserve land. Along with well-known factors of organizational …
Climate Change Adaptation In Coastal Australia: An Audit Of Planning Practice, Nicole Gurran, Barbara Norman, Elisabeth M. Hamin
Climate Change Adaptation In Coastal Australia: An Audit Of Planning Practice, Nicole Gurran, Barbara Norman, Elisabeth M. Hamin
Elisabeth M. Hamin
This study examines the state of local practice in planning for climate change adaptation in coastal Australia, in the context of rapidly evolving policy frameworks, using grounded theory to examine the process communities follow as they undertake adaptation planning. Australia‘s coastal cities and towns, with over 85 per cent of the nation‘s population, are at the frontline of physical risks associated with sea level rise and changed weather patterns; exacerbated by ongoing concentration of public and private assets in potentially vulnerable locations. This is particularly so for coastal councils beyond the major capital cities, where settlement patterns and lifestyle oriented …
Local Actions, National Frameworks: A Dual-Scale Comparison Of Climate Adaptation Planning On Two Continents, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Local Actions, National Frameworks: A Dual-Scale Comparison Of Climate Adaptation Planning On Two Continents, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Elisabeth M. Hamin
This study explores emerging approaches to local climate change adaptation planning in the United States and Australia, and seeks to explain why some local authorities have begun to take action despite weak national and state level directives. We compare strategic documents from 13 local authorities across the two nations, representing the “first generation” of adaptation plans. Our focus is on potential explanations for early engagement in adaptation planning – size, location and risk level of the municipality, the existence of national or state mandates and access to supra local resources or support. We also explore the nature and type of …
Urban Form And Climate Change: Balancing Adaptation And Mitigation In The U.S. And Australia, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Urban Form And Climate Change: Balancing Adaptation And Mitigation In The U.S. And Australia, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Nicole Gurran
Elisabeth M. Hamin
The science of climate change is now well established. Predicted weather-related events like sea level rise, increased storm events, and extreme heat waves imply an urgent need for new approaches to settlement design to enable human and non-human species to adapt to these increased risks. A wide variety of policy responses are emerging at local and regional levels – from sustainable urban form, to alternative energy production and new approaches to biodiversity conservation. However, little attempt has been made to ensure that strategies to adapt to the inevitable impacts of enhanced climate change (such as additional open space to enable …
Wildland–Urban Interface Communities’ Response To Post-Fire Salvage Logging, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Robert L. Ryan
Wildland–Urban Interface Communities’ Response To Post-Fire Salvage Logging, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Robert L. Ryan
Elisabeth M. Hamin
Salvage logging, the removal for profit of standing trees that have been damaged by extensive wildfires, has been quite controversial and subject to lawsuits that can delay the logging past the time in which the lumber is still useful. It has not been clear, however, whether the public that has been most affected by wildfires—those that live near burned areas—support or oppose postfire logging. In this research we use focus groups and stakeholder interviews in urban interface communities that have experienced significant wildfires to examine in some detail the perspectives these members of the public have regarding salvage logging. Public …
Wildfires, Communities, And Agencies: Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of Postfire Forest Restoration And Rehabilitation, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Robert L. Ryan
Wildfires, Communities, And Agencies: Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of Postfire Forest Restoration And Rehabilitation, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Robert L. Ryan
Elisabeth M. Hamin
After wildfire, land managers are often called on to undertake complex restoration activities while also managing relations with wildfire-devastated communities. This research investigates the community–US Forest Service agency relations in the postwildfire period in three western US communities. In each community, we interviewed key informant representatives from government, business, environmental organizations, and recreation groups and conducted focus groups to gather input from residents located near burn areas. The goal was to understand how forest restoration and rehabilitation efforts and agency outreach were perceived by stakeholders who were recently affected by wildfire and how these perceptions were related to underlying community …
Ad Hoc Rural Regionalism, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Daniel J. Marcucci
Ad Hoc Rural Regionalism, Elisabeth M. Hamin, Daniel J. Marcucci
Elisabeth M. Hamin
A new regionalism has been much documented and researched for metropolitan areas; this article documents that there is a new rural regionalism as well. In the United States, these groups appear most likely to emerge in areas that are challenged by outcomes characterizing globalization’s effects on the rural condition: namely, exurban or metropolitan sprawl and the resulting landscape fragmentation, often in combination with extreme pressure on the profitability of small farms or other resource uses. This research asks: what impetus is behind rural regional efforts; and what sort of processes of institutionalization do these groups utilize? The paper builds on …