Generating narratives on future risk to inform regional climate change adaptation planning

Abstract

This chapter uses the regional research projects as case studies to argue that adaptation decision-making must draw from logical narratives on future risk that are synthesised from all available sources, and that the space for future learning must remain. The South Australian research has focused on work with regional natural resource management (NRM) boards and practitioners to generate appropriate planned responses to climate change risk in both an urban core region and a remote indigenous region. The work in Asia analysed the potential impacts of climate change on human populations and its implications for migration patterns. In both cases, the analyses integrated a range of knowledge, including metric-based projections of future climatic and environmental conditions, and perceptions and analyses of historical, contemporary and possible future socio-ecosystems. The South Australian and Asian case studies briefly frame a discussion on the requirement to transform society to generate sustainable and resilient systems.