Vulnerability and resilience

Vulnerability initially focused on risk-based assessments in terms of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Meanwhile, early concepts of resilience were based on ecological and then social-ecological thresholds and tipping points. However, both discourses are merging through a common focus on social and sustainability learning to enable transformation and renewal. Vulnerability is also framed as a negative attribute. However, it has been argued that society is conditioned towards responses that manipulate external environments to reduce short-term vulnerability, which distances communities from authentic learning experiences.

The research addresses a critical knowledge gap by challenging the notion that vulnerability should, and can, be removed and seeks to explore the crucial role that vulnerability plays in developing longer-term learning, adaptive capacity and resilience.

Adaptation

Extensive literature exists on the concept of adaptation, which is often defined by concepts such as:

• defence/protection (eg building a sea wall)
• accommodation (eg waterproofing)
• retreat strategies (eg land use zoning changes)

However, most actual responses can be categorised as defence and comprise hard infrastructure solutions. Very few retreat strategies have been implemented. Adaptation strategies are also often poorly integrated with changing social values or the need for multiple response strategies across a range of goals. Maladaptation was introduced to explain adaptation that has adverse unintended consequences. Nevertheless, more critical analysis of adaptation, in terms of the intentions underpinning selected actions, is needed to determine the sustainability and efficacy of response strategies. In this way, society can actively pursue a preferred future, rather than taking a reactive approach through isolated and ad hoc adaptation actions.

This research contributes to a critical knowledge gap by exploring the impacts of governance approaches that embrace vulnerability and social-ecological change.

Adaptive capacity

Attempts to simplify adaptive capacity to factors such as wealth and education have been widely criticized because there are too many complex factors at play when it comes to adaptability. Consequently, there is a growing body of literature on context-specific determinants of adaptive capacity. However, there has been little exploration of the relationship between different types of adaptation and influences on adaptive capacity.

A critical knowledge gap addressed by the research is understanding the role that vulnerability plays in improving adaptive capacity in the longer-term.

Summary 

The current coastal management model is failing. This project is important for addressing the state of the Australian coastal zone and the many communities that depend on it. The novelty of the research is its exploration of new ideas that create the ‘space for movement’ within social, political, cultural and environmental domains to allow:

• dynamism within social-ecological systems; and
• authentic learning from vulnerability experiences, which allows both social-ecological change and vulnerability to be embraced by new governance arrangements.