Coastal Community Perspective: Climate Change in South Australia

This report examines the vulnerability of coastal communities in South Australia to climate change impacts. It begins by defining climate change and its effects, including sea level rise, storm intensity, and coastal erosion. The research explores the vulnerability of coastal populations, particularly in areas like South Australia, and emphasizes the importance of adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. The report investigates the perceptions of climate change vulnerability among coastal communities and city councils, assessing the effectiveness of online tools in predicting and adapting to climate change impacts. It also addresses the barriers faced by city councils in adapting to climate change. The literature review covers perceptions of vulnerability, climate change projections, and the roles of policies and community perceptions in addressing climate change impacts. The study aims to assess vulnerability using online tools, evaluate council actions, and propose adaptation strategies to minimize climate change's impact. The research underscores the need for proactive measures to address the growing challenges posed by climate change in coastal regions.

Title of the research:
Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change on the South Australian coast: a coastal
community perspective.

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Introduction
What is climate change? You need to provide some definitons here, from the current
IPCC report. Climate change is seen to be affecting the coastal populations by posing significant
challenges from a combination of the climate uncertainty and climate variability (Smith et al.,
2015). Furthermore, it also impacts a diverse range of coastal stakeholders, temporal dynamics of
the coastal areas, and spatial dynamics of the coastal systems (Palutikof et al. 2018).
The coastal areas of Australia are exposed to the different forms of extreme conditions like high
storm intensity, storm tracks, inundation and erosion due to sea level rise. While it is important
to mention that the coastal areas accommodates about 80 percent of the population, …. (Button
and Harvey, 2015).
Coastal communities are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Climate change
vulnerability is defined as …… (Djouder and Boutiba 2017)
The coastline population of the South Austria is grimmer and is due to the fact that 47 percent of
the coastline area consist of sea beaches that are sandy and it is backed by the soft sediment
plains (Button and Harvey 2015). This results in a high potential of flooding due to the rise in the
sea level, foredune destabilisation and also from the recession of the shoreline. In the South
Australia, there are about 31,000 to 48,000 residents that are facing high risks.
This sentence need restructuring: Do you mean to say ‘In South Australia, a population of
31,000-48,000 lives in the coastal region who are vulnerable to climate change impacts. It has
been estimated that 30 percent of the people reside in the 2 km of the shoreline, 50 percent of the
people live within the 7 km of the shoreline (Souter and Williams 2015). There are 5,700-
7,100km of rail and road networks in the coastal region, which could be damaged due to climate

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change impacts. There are 1,300 -2,600 light and commercial buildings at risk. All these assets
add up to 47 billion Australian dollars (Souter and Williams 2015).
Now, you have to write one or two paragraphs about the importance in adapting to climate
change impacts. Use terms such as ‘reducing vulnerability’, ‘climate change adaptation’,
‘adaptive capacity’, ‘increase resilience’. You can find these from literature.
Problem statement
The topic chosen for the research is vital because recent findings suggest that the climate
system is changing at a faster rate and it has been projected that the in future the impacts of the
climate change will be severe. Due to the high emission scenario, the sea level is likely to rise up
and the it is likely to increase by a metre by the end of the century. Give the graph of emission
scenarios and associated sea level rise here.
There will be changes in the magnitude and frequency in the extreme sea level events like the
storm surges and this with the rising sea level will lead to a devastating inundation. It has also
been noted that the rise in the sea level will not stabilise till the year 2100 even if the greenhouse
gas emissions were to fall. There are evidences that suggest that the damaging and severe
tropical cyclones can occur more often and it could move further south through the west and the
east coasts in South Australia? The rising sea levels will cause increased rates of erosion and for
several beaches that are around the Australian coastline. The major uncertainties in the coastal
risks are the change in the magnitude of the sea level due to the melting of ice in the poles? and
erosion of the coasts (Government of Australia, 2019).
While much effort has been made at national level to develop online tools to determine the
vulnerability of communities, there is a gap in effort to downscale these to local council level.

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Therefore, this research will attempt to assess the vulnerability of the coastal communities that
are residing in selected local councils in South Australia using online tools available. It will then
attempt to explore whether appropriate action has been taken by these local councils to reduce
the vulnerability of communities. It will also attempt to propose feasible adaptation strategies for
the highly vulnerable communities, which could effectively minimise the impact of climate
change.
Figure 1: Map if South Australia Coastal areas [source: Bom.gov.au 2019]

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Rationale of the research
Climate change is the biggest r challenge for all the coastal populations worldwide and
the situation has turned worse due to the combinations of diversity of the stakeholders, temporal
and spatial dynamics of the coastal systems, climate uncertainty and climate variability
uncertainty and climate variability (Wheeler, Zuo and Bjornlund 2013). The issues associated
with climate change are of major concern because of the rapid development of the coastal areas
and the population trends that showcase a massive growth in the coastal areas, and it is expected
to rise by the year 2025 (Wheeler, Zuo and Bjornlund 2013). This is now an issue because the
coastal populations have been expected to grow and the increased amounts of attention is
required towards the operationalisation of the spaces and plans, development of the post policy
partnerships, and planning (Button and Harvey 2015). This research will explicitly focus on the
vulnerability of the coastal communities that are residing in the coastal areas of the South
Australia.
Research aims and objectives
The aim of the research is to understand the effectiveness of online tools available, in
determining the vulnerability of city councils in South Australia to climate change impacts.
The research objectives are as follows:
 What are the perceptions about climate change vulnerability among city councils
close to Adelaide?

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 Is it possible to downscale the available online tools to predict how sea level rise,
increase in storm surges, coastal erosion and inundation in 5 selected coastal city
councils close to Adelaide city over the next 25 years?
 How capable are the city councils in using these online tools for predicting and
adapting to the serious climate change?
 What are the barriers that city councils face in predicting negative impacts
adapting to these climate change impacts?
Literature review
1. perceptions of vulnerability among coastal communities
Elrick‐Barr et al. (2015), conducted a study on the perceptions of the risk among the two
Australian communities that living in the coastal areas. It is important to note that the public
perceptions related to the risk can constrain and compel the economic, social and political action.
After surveying coastal communities that are residing in Australia it was identified that there is
no relationship between the perceptions of the household characteristics (age, type of family,
education and income) and the local area vulnerability. No relationship between the household
characteristics and the household perception of risk has been found and it lacks the development
guidelines that are threatening their homes and are affecting their property. Whereas, household
asset based perceptions have captured with respect to the risks related with the loss of private
transport, inability to access education, risk perceptions related to the loss of job. For example,
the households that are having lower income have a high level of perception relating to risking
the ability to pay the bills in due time in comparison to the ones that are having higher income.
The risk perceptions for the households that are located in the small geographic areas showed
variability and they are based on the past experiences of exposure to the different types of

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climatic hazards. Similarly, the households that had previous exposure to the environmental
hazards have higher concerns towards the issues pertaining to the environment (Wheeler, Zuo
and Bjornlund 2013).
2. Climate change in the next 25 years and adaptation
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a long history along which, they
developed the capability of adapting to the various changing conditions of the environment and it
also includes the recent changes in the climate (how do you know this?). However, it is
important to mention that the ability to the adapt to the changing conditions of the environment is
comparatively new.
A change of the point of discussion needs to be in a new paragraph. A national level
climate change adaptation program was adopted by the Australian Government in 2004. This
program was explicitly aimed towards preparing the local governments, state governments and
the communities to prepare for the changes in the climate (Fatti and Patel 2013). In 2006, the
Australian government formulated a framework to address the climate change and at the same
time developed the information related to the effective form of adaptation. The national Climate
Change Adaptation Programme led to the establishment of |National Climate Change Adaptation
Research Facility (NCCARF) in 2008.
Different point to the above and therefore needs to be in a new paragraph. It has been
highlighted that the majority of the adaptations taken up in the states of the Queensland, Victoria
and New South Wales are based on the response towards the temperature increase due to the
climate change and the rise in sea level (Wise et al. 2014). Furthermore, steps were taken to
severe weather events like the cyclones that are occurring at an increased frequency and
increased intensity (who took these steps and how do you know this?. The rise in sea level is

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especially emphasised in these regions and the reason is the presence of capital infrastructure,
risk of loss of the habitable lands, damage and inundation to the assets (Wise et al. 2014).
There are even evidences of health adaptation and majority of the focus is placed on the
mental health and climate change within a particular group of people in response to a climate
related stressors such as…. (Pearce et al. 2018). Good point – can you write more?
The heading of this section is about predicting clmate change impacts for the next 100 or
25 years. For this, you need to find information from IPCC and government documents.
3. climate change and coastal areas
It has been highlighted by Lipiec et al. (2018), that the coastal communities are always at
the risk from the various types of the coastal hazards such as….
local decision makers lack proper tools that are required for the reduction of the change in
climate. The state governments and the local governments are unable to manage the changing
and dynamic environment that is slow and are unable to match with the governance. The coastal
decision makers have limitations on implementing a particular policy. Ramm et al. (2017) has
mentioned that Australia is an arid country and about 85 percent of the population resides near
water sources in the coast. It has been shown that in the last 100 hundred years there has been a
rise in the rate of the sea level and it has even accelerated in the recent times (who has shown
this?). in Australia and in the region, the sea level has increased comparable to the global rates
source? . The rise in the sea level has led to the increase in a number of natural hazards like
coastal erosion and storm surges give the source of this information or name some

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events/statistics. The author has highlighted that the methodology that are used in the evaluation
of the long term coastal are adaptation include the options like the decision metrics, decision
process, uncertainty management, risk identification, time horizon and decision objectives (Fatti
and Patel 2013).
There is a gap in literature about tools that can be used by local councils and communities in
cities about impacts of climate change and this research attepts to address this gap.
4 Role played by the policies and the perception of the dwellers
The coastal policy of the South Australia address managing climate change and its impact
on the coastal zone dwellers. This tool policy? was effective and it addressed coastal risks such
as sea level rise. The coastal policy of the South Australia incorporated components pertaining to
protection funding from the erosion and flooding, rise in the sea level benchmark, climate related
components pertaining to the hazard standard. It has been highlighted by Button and Harvey
(2015), that the property owners were more concerned about changes in climate and they
personally believe that it is occurring now. While it has also been seen the majority of the
community members were unwilling to buy in of the adaptation plan for a variety of reasons.
There were a portion of the respondents that had the belief and a strong capability that they will
be adapt to the change in climate and its impact, while they were even optimistic about
adaptation regarding the climatic changes that will be occurring in the next 25 years (Button and
Harvey 2015).
As this section talks about government policies, bring in information about policies and
strategies that you explained in section1, 2 and 3 in to this section.

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I have attached a document, which mentions some tools available to understand climate change
impacts. Use some of these information here.
This research will attempt to understand how available tools could be used to …
Methodology
The research will follow a qualitative methodology in examining the effectiveness of
various tools available online to determine the vulnerability of selected city councils to priority
climate change impacts. The priority climate change impacts selected for this research are: sea
level rise, coastal storm surges, inundation, coastal erosion. A set of criteria will be developed to
determine the vulnerability of a local city council to climate change impacts, against which five
city councils will be evaluated.
Five city councils within South Australia will be selected based on their ease to access
from Adelaide during the short time available for this research.
Online tools such as the CoastAdapt website that provides a comprehensive guidance and
information for coastal managers seeking to adapt is one of the key tools that would be used to
evaluate the vulnerability of city councils during this research (Coastadapt.com.au 2019). The
CoastAdapt will access the data sets at the local scale and product visualisation will also be
present to understand the climate related risks (Nccarf 2019). The C-CADS will provide a
unifying framework for the purpose of unifying the CoastAdapt and its checklists, case studies
and he datasets. CoastAdapt will include the risk assessment framework with three different
stages of risk assessment, checklists and templates (Coastadapt.com.au 2019).
In addition, online information sources such as ABS…. will be used

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Please see the document attached for more online tools and briefly write about them.
In-depth semi-structured Interviews will be conducted with managers of the 5 coastal city
councils, which are close to Adelaide city. The data will be collected based on the how the
community members are seeking to understand the i) information pertaining to adaptation and its
data sets; ii) process of the management of risk and management of adaptation in the coastal
areas; iii) a mechanism through which the users can interact.
Furthermore, the information regarding the guidance will be provided through a ‘diver’
that will facilitate with the technical descriptions and it will be written in a non-technical
language and it will require commitment from the reader that wants to get involved with the
adaptation activity. The majority of the respondents will deal with a single adaptation process
(having an initial communication before writing an adaption strategy). along with the examples
of the comprehensive action strategy that will demonstrate the barrier if it exists.
Furthermore, the website of the National Climate Change Adaptation and Research
Facility provides the technical research reports and it will be helpful for the coastal managers to
go through the same and policy formulation. The National Climate Change Adaptation and
Research Facility provides an adaptation library that can be searched by using the resource type,
location, topic and keywords. However, it is also important to mention that the National Climate
Change Adaptation and Research Facility library also provides with case studies, policy
guidance briefs and factsheets (Nccarf.edu.au 2019).

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Reference
Bom.gov.au, 2019. South Australia Coastal Weather Stations. [online] Bom.gov.au. Available
at: http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/maps/sa-coastal-stations-map.shtml#adelaide [Accessed 20
Mar. 2019].
Button, C. and Harvey, N., 2015. Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change on the South
Australian coast: a coastal community perspective. Transactions of the Royal Society of South
Australia, 139(1), pp.38-56.
Coastadapt.com.au, 2019. CoastAdapt datasets | CoastAdapt. [online] Coastadapt.com.au.
Available at: https://coastadapt.com.au/tools/coastadapt-datasets#future-datasets [Accessed 9
Mar. 2019].
Coastadapt.com.au, 2019. Rules of thumb for managing coastal processes | CoastAdapt. [online]
Coastadapt.com.au. Available at: https://coastadapt.com.au/tools/rules-of-thumb-for-managing-
coastal-processes [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].
Elrick‐Barr, C.E., Smith, T.F., Thomsen, D.C. and Preston, B.L., 2015. Perceptions of Risk
among Households in Two A ustralian Coastal Communities. Geographical Research, 53(2),
pp.145-159.
Environment.gov.au, 2019. Climate Change Risks to Australia’s Coast A FIRST PASS
NATIONAL ASSESSMENT. [online] Environment.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/fa553e97-2ead-47bb-ac80-
c12adffea944/files/cc-risks-full-report.pdf [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].

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Fatti, C.E. and Patel, Z., 2013. Perceptions and responses to urban flood risk: Implications for
climate governance in the South. Applied Geography, 36, pp.13-22.
Lipiec, E., Ruggiero, P., Mills, A., Serafin, K.A., Bolte, J., Corcoran, P., Stevenson, J., Zanocco,
C. and Lach, D., 2018. Mapping out climate change: Assessing how coastal communities adapt
using alternative future scenarios. Journal of Coastal Research, 34(5), pp.1196-1208.
Nccarf.edu.au, 2019. NCCARF - National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
[online] Nccarf.edu.au. Available at: https://www.nccarf.edu.au/content/coastal-tool-overview
[Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].
Nccarf.edu.au, 2019. NCCARF - National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
[online] Nccarf.edu.au. Available at: https://www.nccarf.edu.au/biblio [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].
Palutikof, J.P., Rissik, D., Webb, S., Tonmoy, F.N., Boulter, S.L., Leitch, A.M., Perez Vidaurre,
A.C. and Campbell, M.J., 2018. CoastAdapt: an adaptation decision support framework for
Australia’s coastal managers. Climatic Change, pp.1-17.
Pearce, T., Rodríguez, E., Fawcett, D. and Ford, J., 2018. How Is Australia Adapting to Climate
Change Based on a Systematic Review?. Sustainability, 10(9), p.3280.
Ramm, T.D., White, C.J., Chan, A.H.C. and Watson, C.S., 2017. A review of methodologies
applied in Australian practice to evaluate long-term coastal adaptation options. Climate Risk
Management, 17, pp.35-51.
Souter, N.J. and Williams, C.R., 2015. The climate change SA symposium 2013: a synthesis.
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 139(1), pp.3-8.

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Wheeler, S., Zuo, A. and Bjornlund, H., 2013. Farmers’ climate change beliefs and adaptation
strategies for a water scarce future in Australia. Global Environmental Change, 23(2), pp.537-
547.
Activity Milestone? Schedule
Dates
1. Resolution of pre-requisite feedback and
conditions
Week 1
2. Data collection activity 1 Week 2
3. Data collection activity 2 Week 3
4. Document the results (analysis of data) Week
5. Formulate discussion chapter Week
6. Compile thesis first draft Week
 Submit draft thesis for Supervisor review Week
7. Finalise data analysis and related documentation Week
8. Finalise results, discussion, implications, and
conclusions
Week
9. Check and respond to feedback Week
 Submit final thesis for assessment Week
10. Order and ship hard-bound copies Week
11. Project close-out activities Week

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