Resource Management and Geography - Theses

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    A northward shift of the Southern Westerlies during the Antarctic cold reversal: evidence from Tasmania, Australia
    Alexander, Joseph ( 2018)
    The Southern Hemisphere Westerlies are one of the most important components of the Earth’s climate system: they are the primary driver of Southern Hemisphere climate, they modulate global ocean circulation patterns, and they are a critical natural driver of atmospheric CO2 variation. Despite their clear importance, their dynamics in response to rapid changes in climate boundary conditions are poorly understood. Critical to this lack of understanding is (1) an absence of robust proxy-data from the Australian sector of the Southern Hemisphere, which hampers attempts at predictive modelling, and (2) a lack of consensus within the palaeoclimate literature as to how the Southern Westerlies have responded to past periods of rapid climate change. A case in point is the behaviour of the Southern Westerlies during the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14,000 – 13,700 years ago), a millennial-scale climate event that punctuated the termination of the Last Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere. A thorough understanding of how this critical climate component changed during the ACR is hampered by the only available proxy-dataset from the Australian sector of the Southern Hemisphere, which disagrees with records from other regions, and with the leading conceptual understanding of Southern Westerly dynamics. To address this discord, this thesis sought to reconstruct the dynamics of the Southern Westerlies in the Australian sector by developing two robust terrestrial proxy-datasets from Tasmania, Australia, covering the ACR. The results from this thesis demonstrate that the Southern Westerlies responded to the climatic changes of the ACR as predicted by the leading conceptual understanding of their dynamics, and also revealed that they responded symmetrically across the Southern Hemisphere, coincident with substantial changes in atmospheric CO2 variation. This thesis supports the hypotheses that the Southern Westerlies are the primary determinant of long-term Tasmanian climate variation and are a critical regulator of long-term global atmospheric CO2 variation.
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    Microfinance organisations and social vulnerability to climate change
    Nuruzzaman, AKM ( 2016)
    Microfinance Organisations (MFOs) are working with more than 175 million families around the world. In theory they can be instrumental in reducing social vulnerability to climate change,yet their effect on social vulnerability to climate change has not been well demonstrated. This study aims to explore the role that MFOs play in reducing social vulnerability to climate change in Bangladesh, a country that not only pioneered microfinance but also is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through interviews with 60 households across four villages in a disaster-prone coastal area in south-western Bangladesh, along with observations and interviews with key informants. The quantitiative data was used to develop a social vulnerability index based on an assessment of livelihood capitals (human, physical, natural, financial and social), which was compared with different levels of membership with microfinance organisations to test for associations. Qualititative data was used to explain the results generated through the quantitative analysis. The quantitative results indicate that households who have engaged with at least one MFO are less vulnerable than those who have not. Those who have engaged with more than one MFO, and who use the loans for business purposes, are even less likely to be vulnerable. The analysis not only provides evidence that microfinance organisations are valuable institutions for achieving sustainable adaptation, but also indicate that some of the most valuable outcomes of their services are the building of social and human capital. Despite this, some of the root causes of vulnerability, such as social marginalisation and gender discrimination are not overcome through the interventions of microfinance.
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    A long-term historical perspective on environmental changes in the Wimmera of Western Victoria, Australia
    Yazdanparast, Parastoo ( 2016)
    Salt lakes form a conspicuous element of southern Australian arid and semi-arid regions. The origin and development of these salt lakes is closely tied to major climatic perturbations during the Pleistocene. Unlike most of North America, Europe and much of Asia, Pleistocene climate change in the arid and semi-arid of southern Australia is manifest as a series of aeolian deposits, erosional basins and unique, ancient soils. Sediments that are crucial for palynological studies are largely restricted to the temperate mountainous regions of east and southeast Australia, whereas much of the rest of the continent is remarkably flat and suffers from permanent water deficits or seasonal monsoonal influences. As a consequence, the Quaternary history of Australia has been derived from what are, on a continental scale, atypical climates and landforms. Despite their widespread occurrence, ecological importance and sensitivity to hydro-climatic change, only a handful of Australian palaeoecological studies have utilized the sediments contained within salt lakes. In a continent where any increase in mean annual temperatures will have profound implications for ecological processes and economic activities, it makes sense to try to understand the responses of semi-arid and arid landscapes to recent environmental changes. In addition, land degradation remains a critical and long lasting problem. Overgrazing, land clearance and the development of saline soils are clearly implicated as land degradation processes, especially in southern Australia. As many factors contribute to this pressing socio-ecological problem, it is not sensible to assess this phenomenon without considering its context in terms of long-term processes. In this context, I focus my palaeoecological analysis on a heavily altered landscape located within an area representative of Australian salt lake systems. I aim to disentangle the pre and post European environmental history of this important system and seek to identify, classify and understand land degradation processes, with a focus on plant community changes. This project proceeds by analyzing the history of land use and the ecology of plant communities concentrating on past human burning activities and palaeoenvironmental changes based on evidence from sediments, fossil pollen and microscopic charcoal dating from Aboriginal to European settlement times in the Wimmera of western Victoria, southern Australia. Using fossil pollen and charcoal from lake sediments illustrated that salinity rose substantially as forest diversity decreased since the start of European settlement.
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    Negotiating the future: risk, meaning and politics in climate change adaptation in rural Vanuatu
    Granderson, Ainka Alison ( 2015)
    This thesis examines the multiple constructions of risk, and of local adaptive capacity, shaping climate change adaptation planning and decision-making in rural Vanuatu. Climate change adaptation is often viewed instrumentally as a technical response to climate-related risks. Using a cultural-political approach, I recast it as process of negotiation among diverse actors, meanings and interests. I focus on how actors variously construct risks and local adaptive capacity, and struggle over what constitutes ‘appropriate’ adaptation to climate change. I analyse two climate change adaptation projects involving rural communities in Mota Lava and Tongoa islands in Vanuatu. A combination of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation were used to capture constructions of risk and local adaptive capacity among actors engaged in the projects, and how these constructions translated into plans and interventions. I hone in on how villagers in Mota Lava and Tongoa talk about changing climatic risks and their capacity to adapt in their own terms. I seek out explanatory narratives that highlight villager’s notions of causality and agency in relation to changing risks. I contrast this with how practitioners and policymakers discuss changing climatic risks and adaptive capacity within rural communities. I identify what they see as adaptation priorities and appropriate types of interventions. I then examine whose constructions gained traction within the project, how and to what effect. I seek out examples of how actors interact, building consensus for or contesting the identified priorities and interventions. Analysis revealed distinct ways of imbuing meaning to risks and adaptive capacity, and issues of power and politics. Notably, villagers constructed and attached significance to changing climatic risks in relation to wider socio-economic changes. Maintaining their livelihoods and valued traditions were key in the face of future uncertainty. Practitioners and policymakers tended to construct these risks as a biophysical problem requiring a technical fix. Tensions arose over efforts to build adaptive capacity within the projects. However, villagers’ concerns were largely sidelined. Practitioners, policymakers and community representatives, such as chiefs and public officials, were able to exert influence due to their access to resources, political status, prevailing cultural norms, and an uneasy alliance. To ensure just and transparent outcomes, close attention is needed to the logic and politics of participation in adaptation planning and decision-making at the community level.
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    Insights into mainstreaming climate change adaptation: a study of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement
    McNaught, Rebecca ( 2015)
    This thesis aims to understand how the global Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has attempted to mainstream climate change adaptation into its programmes. The need for and merits of mainstreaming as an approach to addressing the impacts of climate change are discussed in the literature on climate change adaptation. However, to date there are very little examples and critiques of this as an approach relating to humanitarian institutions. A theoretical framework derived from research on mainstreaming gender, disaster risk management and climate change is used as the foundation for analysing the mainstreaming efforts of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. The methods for this analysis include document analysis, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and case study research. There are three components to the analysis: a chronology of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement’s mainstreaming efforts between 1999 and 2012; an analysis of the outcomes of a global climate change mainstreaming programme implemented over nearly six years in 64 countries; and a case study outlining the attempts of the Solomon Islands Red Cross to incorporate climate change considerations in its programmes. There are three key findings of this thesis. The first is that climate change communication with communities and the wider public, particularly in developing country contexts, is difficult and a barrier to mainstreaming climate change. Though the climate change adaptation literature acknowledges the important role of climate change communication and translation of climate information in mainstreaming, it doesn’t provide detailed empirical analysis of how this should be done in practice. The second is that mainstreaming is not expensive, but does require long-term, concerted investment. This need for a relatively low-cost, but long-term investment perspective, is not clearly highlighted in the literature on climate change adaptation. This is most likely because climate change adaptation is still in its infancy. The third major finding of this thesis is that mainstreaming is affected by fluctuations in organisational capacity, so organisational development is an important component of adapting humanitarian agencies to climate change. The thesis’ findings imply that the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has an important role to play in communicating climate change to the wider public and the communities that it works with. In order to support this and the work of other actors globally, far more research, training and guidance on climate communications is required. Finally this thesis demonstrates that the broad commitments made by global institutions to mainstream climate change adaptation will require concerted long-term investments, including especially in organisational capacity.
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    Household vulnerability to climate change in a rural Chinese county: does the local state matter?
    ROGERS, SARAH ( 2014)
    The aim of this thesis is to understand the vulnerability of rural households to climate change in China and the influence of local government on that vulnerability. To achieve this aim, two research questions are addressed: 1) in what ways are rural households vulnerable to climate change?; and 2) in what ways does local government influence rural household vulnerability to climate change? The thesis applies a sustainable livelihoods approach to examining household vulnerability and is further informed by theories of vulnerability to climate change and theories of central-local government relations in China. It posits that local governments influence the vulnerability of rural households by mediating their access to livelihood assets and activities, and by shaping their coping and adaptive strategies. The research questions are addressed through the analysis of data collected in four apple-producing villages – two wealthier and two poorer – in a case study county called Jixian. Jixian is a nationally designated poverty county that lies on the Loess Plateau in Shanxi Province. The methods used are primarily qualitative: semi-structured interviews and direct observation, supported by secondary data collection. The thesis finds that all households in all villages are vulnerable to climate change due to water insecurity, but that some are more vulnerable than others as a result of differential access to land. Households in wealthier villages have better access to land such that they are better able to cope with climatic stress than households in poorer villages. In relation to local government influence, it is the county government that has the most influence through its allocation of resources to villages. Resource allocation is done in such a way as to favour the two wealthier, more developed villages, thus amplifying existing differences in access to resources between villages. Yet the county government’s influence on vulnerability is far from absolute, as the major drivers of household vulnerability in Jixian, which are access to land and water, lie beyond its control.
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    Understanding adaptation: households and bushfire risk in Mount Dandenong
    Mortreux, Colette ( 2014)
    Despite growing evidence of the need for climate change adaptation, it is not well understood. Adaptation is a complex social phenomenon in which climate risk is negotiated and acted upon in social and environmental contexts. This complexity makes adaptation difficult to research and there are few empirical studies that investigate adaptation in practice. In lieu of evidence about adaptation practices, many researchers instead assess the capacity to adapt, despite little evidence to suggest that adaptive capacity explains the practice of adaptation. This thesis makes a contribution to knowledge about adaptation to climate change by examining the extent to which households in Mt. Dandenong are adapting to bushfire risk, and the extent to which their adaptation practices are explained by their adaptive capacity. It studies household preparation for bushfires in Mount Dandenong as this is a good proxy for adaptation practices, and it compares this with an assessment of the their adaptive capacity (by examining their wealth, health, education, knowledge, and social capital). The research then examines alternative factors that might be explaining or influencing adaptation in the case study. The thesis finds that very few households are adapting well, despite a high level of adaptive capacity. There is a tenuous relationship between adaptive capacity and adaptation within the sample. There is a disparity between what people could do to adapt, and what they actually do. High adaptive capacity does not ensure that adaptation occurs. The findings suggest that to understand the adaptation practices of households, greater attention needs to be paid to the factors that trigger people to apply their available capacities.
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    Framing resilience: practitioners’ views of its meaning and usefulness in disaster risk management practice
    Aldunce Ide, Paulina Paz ( 2013)
    There is an imperative to search for approaches that can further develop Disaster Risk Management (DRM), in order to confront the increasingly devastating impacts of disasters; and the challenges and uncertainty climate change is posing through an expected rise in frequency and magnitude of hazards. In this realm, the resilience perspective emerges as a plausible approach, and although it is not a new concept for DRM practitioners and researchers, it has generated great policy traction in the last decade as it has been strongly introduced into the policy arena. However, there is no single, agreed definition of resilience and in fact the idea of resilience is highly controversial and contested, with few empirical studies available to inform theory or show its application in practice. Therefore, this thesis aimed to extend the understanding of resilience by addressing the research question: How do different stakeholders understand and construct ideas associated with the integration of resilience into disaster risk management in the context of changes in institutional arrangements? This research investigated the construction of the disaster resilience discourse in a case study of a disaster management initiative in Australia: the Natural Disaster Resilience Program (NDRP), in Queensland. Using Hajer’s ‘Social-interactive discourse theory’, together with practitioners’ in-depth interviews, a document analysis of program and government artefacts, and observation of different activities at various sites, the methods combine to present a clearer understanding of the complexity inherent in changes in a policy domain. The research findings show that practitioners understand and construct the meaning of disaster resilience differently, which is embedded in their diverse storylines, and importantly the divergences among these storylines reveal possibilities for social learning and reframing to occur. The resilience discourse is considered by the study participants as a shift in paradigm, useful for the development of DRM and helpful for changing and improving practices. What emerges as critical and requires urgent attention for building resilience is stakeholder participation, and for this to become socially relevant, challenges such as meaningful communication and governance structures need to be addressed. Climate change is framed mainly as a non-routine and complex issue and therefore as an ongoing challenge for DRM. Nevertheless, there is an intention among practitioners to confront the complexity of climate change with less complex responses. The results presented in this thesis offer empirical evidence to extend the knowledge of resilience theory, addressing the most critical gaps in the literature, and also provide helpful insights to inform policy design and implementation of resilience ideas in DRM practice.
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    Sustainable energy in Australia: an analysis of performance and drivers relative to other OECD countries
    Kinrade, P. A. ( 2009)
    How sustainable is Australia’s pattern of energy supply and use? What are the major factors explaining Australia’s sustainable energy performance relative to other countries? This thesis explores energy supply and use in Australia during the 1990s and 2000s and examines major drivers such as policy decisions, economic structure and trade profile. Performance and drivers in Australia are compared with other OECD countries. To address the questions posed above, it is first necessary to explore the concepts of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable energy’ and consider how best to measure sustainable energy performance. Alternative sustainability frameworks and models are examined, with the ‘strong sustainability’ model adopted for this thesis being distinguished from other models in three principal ways: i) it places biophysical constraints on economic activity; ii) it regards certain critical natural capital is being non-substitutable; and iii) it places roughly equal emphasis on intra- and intergenerational equity. The strong sustainability model is operationalised into a series of principles and objectives for energy sustainability, which in turn are used as a basis for systematically developing a suite of sustainable energy indicators. This approach is preferred over other approaches to assessing sustainable energy performance given the study’s focus on measurable objectives and outcomes. The second part of the thesis is devoted to measuring the sustainable energy performance of Australia and other OECD countries against twelve indicators. Some of the indicators selected are ‘standard’, being quite commonly used in other contexts. A number of the indicators though, are unique or have unique features that increase their validity as measures of strong sustainability. Initial results of the performance assessment suggest that Australia is amongst the weakest performing OECD countries, ranking last of all OECD countries against two of the twelve sustainable energy indicators and in the lower quartile of OECD countries against a further six indicators. Further analysis, combining and weighting indicator scores and country rankings across the 12 indicators confirms Australia’s poor performance. Australia ranks 28th of 30 OECD countries by two different ranking methods and 15th of 16 OECD countries by another two methods. Only the USA ranks consistently lower than Australia. Denmark consistently ranks highest of all countries by all methods. The third and final part of the thesis examines drivers of sustainable energy performance by Australia and a subset of four OECD countries: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden (OECD 4). The primary basis for OECD 4 selection was strong performance against the sustainable energy indicators, although other criteria including economic structure, trade and demography were also considered. A range of techniques, including factorisation, ‘what if’ analysis and linear regression are used to diagnose the underlying factors driving the performance of Australia and the OECD 4 against the sustainable energy indicators. The analysis is extended to include a qualitative assessment of policy drivers including strategic and institutional settings, energy pricing, electricity market policies, R & D and regulation. A major conclusion of the thesis based on the analysis is that Australia’s weak sustainable energy performance since 1990, relative to other OECD countries, has been substantially shaped by domestic policy decisions, decisions that were not inevitable given Australia’s economic structure, trade profile, demography, and geography.