School of Earth Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemClimate and security: evidence, emerging risks, and a new agenda(SPRINGER, 2014-03)
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ItemEstimating urban water demand under conditions of rapid growth: the case of Shanghai(SPRINGER HEIDELBERG, 2017-04)
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ItemEstimating urban water demand under conditions of rapid growth: the case of Shanghai (vol 17, pg 1153, 2017)(SPRINGER HEIDELBERG, 2017-04)
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ItemContingent communality and community-based adaptation to climate change: Insights from a Pacific rural atoll(Elsevier BV, 2021-10)Research shows that community-based adaptation (CBA) can empower grassroots agents to determine their preferred responses to climate change. After two decades of practice, recent analysis is highlighting that CBA has its limits, which we argue is in part because it is predicated on an idea of ‘the communal’ as being local, static, and spatially distinct. We investigate the relationship between the nature of community and the successful implementation of CBA through an ethnographic longitudinal study in Namdrik in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. We show that the Namdrik community is best understood as a spatially dynamic network of actors whose sense of shared purpose and capacity to act varies over time in response to demographic, economic and political circumstances. These processes at times weaken the shared commitment necessary for collective action on adaptation, especially as the material support and leadership that initiated CBA in Namdrik has waned. In such circumstances, the success of CBA is spatiotemporally contingent, and depends heavily on the persistence of factors that sustain shared commitment to the task, which most often means ongoing financial and technical support for activities and for community leaders.
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ItemThe drivers of risk to water security in Shanghai(SPRINGER HEIDELBERG, 2013-04)
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ItemThe effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility(SPRINGER, 2018-06)
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ItemTowards fair local outcomes in adaptation to sea-level rise(SPRINGER, 2015-06)
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ItemAdvancing Coral Reef Governance into the Anthropocene(Cell Press, 2020-01-24)The unprecedented global heatwave of 2014–2017 was a defining event for many ecosystems. Widespread degradation caused by coral bleaching, for example, highlighted the vulnerability of hundreds of millions of people dependent on reefs for their livelihoods, well-being, and food security. Scientists and policy makers are now reassessing long-held assumptions about coping with anthropogenic climate change, particularly the assumption that strong local institutions can maintain ecological and social resilience through ecosystem-based management, adaptation, and restoration. Governance is struggling to address the new normal as ecosystem assemblages transform to novel configurations. A central challenge for policy makers in the Anthropocene is navigating environmental crises and coping with societal insecurity and change. Ecosystem governance needs a new paradigm to embrace rapid change and shape future trajectories. In this Perspective, we focus on coral reefs as vanguards for governance transformation. We explain the spatial, temporal, and political dynamics of reefs as they respond to climate change and outline a new governance paradigm applicable to all ecosystems.
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ItemAdapting to climate change in Pacific Island countries: the problem of uncertainty(Elsevier, 2001)This paper investigates the problem of scientific uncertainty and the way it impedes planning for climate change and accelerated sea-level rise (CC & ASLR) in Pacific Island Countries. The paper begins by discussing the problems CC & ASLR poses for Pacific Island Countries, and it explores the limitations of the dominant approach to vulnerability and adaptation. Next, the paper considers the way scientific uncertainty problematises policies aimed at adaptation to CC & ASLR. It argues that the prevailing approach, which requires anticipation of impacts, is unsuccessful, and the paper proposes a complementary strategy aimed to enhance the resilience of whole island social-ecological systems. Recent developments in the theory and practice of resilience are discussed and then applied to formulate goals for adaptation policy in Pacific Island Countries.