The Influence of Community Size and Location on Different Dimensions of Vulnerability: a case study of Australian coastal communities     

Ingrid van Putten  Cecilia Villanueva  Christopher Cvitanovic 《The Australian geographer》2017,48(1):121-142

ABSTRACT

Coastal communities are part of the Australian identity but little is known about their characteristics and their long-term prosperity prospects. Increased migration to coastal areas and increased exposure to extreme climatic events indicates a need for social and economic data to inform socio-ecological systems planning. Here, we undertake a geo-spatial analysis to develop a typology of Australian coastal communities and assess relative vulnerability to climate-driven environmental change for a range of social and economic indicators. The aim of this study is to understand how the vulnerability of Australian coastal communities varies with geographic location or community size, and in comparison to other community types. Results show that both the population size and location of a coastal community matter and that coastal communities overall are more vulnerable on some socio-economic dimensions to climate-driven environmental change than their rural equivalents. However, results also demonstrate that the smallest coastal communities are strong in some important aspects of the human, social and financial domains, putting them in a good position to deal with some changes. Scale-appropriate and context-specific social policies are needed to address identified socio-economic vulnerabilities, supported by a range of formal and informal institutional structures, such as strategies to improve education and female workforce participation, and encourage participation in volunteering to increase human and social capital.  相似文献   

国家地缘脆弱性探索——缅甸案例及对中国地缘战略启示   总被引：3，自引：1，他引：2  

李飞  成升魁  于会录  秦奇  刘晓洁  徐增让  吴良  张丹  李欣  初冬梅 《地理科学进展》2016,35(6):737-746

当今国际地缘政治经济格局正处于剧烈变动中,并对缅甸地缘环境的复杂性及地缘脆弱性产生深刻影响。缅甸所在的大湄公河次区域日益成为世界重要地缘政治力量博弈前沿和焦点。系统研究缅甸国家地缘脆弱性,对于中国西部大开发、“一带一路”及周边地缘环境建设具有重要战略意义。本文基于地缘政治及人地关系地域系统等学科理论,规范分析与实证分析相结合,从暴露性、敏感性和适应性等方面构建了国家地缘脆弱性研究框架,系统探索了缅甸典型的国家地缘脆弱性特征。资源环境禀赋、内部地域结构等引致的经济政治体系、社会文化传承等方面是缅甸脆弱性的本底特征,而缅甸与中国的地缘关系及决策则从根本上影响其地缘战略位态。缅甸地缘政治脆弱性及其与中国的相互依赖使之成为西方“U型封堵大陆战略”的薄弱点和今后角逐的着力点,也是中国解围破局重要的地缘战略出口。近期中国应通过“一带一路”孟中印缅经济走廊建设,大力加强中缅之间政治、经济、文化等各方面友好关系。  相似文献   

The international legal framework for the management of the global oceans social-ecological system     

《Marine Policy》2016

This paper evaluates the international agreements in place for the protection of the environment and the regulation of human activities taking place in world's oceans and seas. 500 multilateral agreements were reviewed against a framework of reference, grounded on the theoretical approaches of Adaptive Management and Transition Management. According to this framework, oceans complex systems management should: (1) consider the global oceans as a Social-Ecological System (SES); (2) aim to achieve or maintain their ecological resilience; and (3) implement iterative, learning-based management strategies, supported by science-based advice to policy and management. The results show that the present international legal framework for the global oceans does not require countries to adopt an adaptive, complex systems approach for global oceans ecological resilience. Instead, this study supports the perspective of a double fragmentation among international agreements. First, global agreements focus on issue-based objectives for determined human activities, ecological components or anthropogenic pressures. Second, regional agreements have a wider scope, but also a varying level of inclusion of ecological resilience considerations. There is the need to foster the inclusion of such an approach into existing and future international agreements and their implementation, including through soft-law, project-based initiatives at global and regional scales.  相似文献   

Factors Influencing Fish Composition in an Australian Intermittently Open Estuary. Is Stability Salinity-Dependent?     

S. P. Griffiths 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2001,52(6):739

The ichthyofauna of the intermittently open Shellharbour Lagoon in southeastern Australia was sampled over 14 months to investigate factors influencing species composition. Zostera capricorni and bare sand habitats were sampled every two months with a fine-mesh seine. Of the 10 277 fish caught representing 19 families and 27 species, the most numerically dominant species were Pseudogobius olorum and Pseudomugil signifer. The most abundant economically important species were Acanthopagrus australis, Mugil cephalus and Myxus elongatus. Mean number of fish and species was significantly higher over Zostera than bare sand during months immediately after the estuary opened when juvenile marine fishes recruited, demonstrating the estuary's nursery function. In contrast to other intermittently open estuaries in Australia and South Africa, Shellharbour Lagoon's fish assemblage appears resilient to perturbation and does not undergo distinct seasonal variations. This may be a result of the estuary's short open phases providing less opportunity for marine fishes to enter. Perhaps more importantly, the less dramatic fluctuations in salinity between open and closed phases maintains salinity at a level intermediate of the tolerances of both marine and estuarine fishes.  相似文献   

Exploring the role of risk perception in influencing flood losses over time     

E. Ridolfi  F. Albrecht  G. Di Baldassarre 《水文科学杂志》2020,65(Z3):12-20

ABSTRACT

What implications do societies’ risk perceptions have for flood losses? This study uses a stylized, socio-hydrological model to simulate the mutual feedbacks between human societies and flood events. It integrates hydrological modelling with cultural theory and proposes four ideal types of society that reflect existing dominant risk perception and management: risk neglecting, risk monitoring, risk downplaying and risk controlling societies. We explore the consequent trajectories of flood risk generated by the interactions between floods and people for these ideal types of society over time. The results suggest that flood losses are substantially reduced when awareness-raising attitudes are promoted through inclusive, participatory approaches in the community. In contrast, societies that rely on top-down hierarchies and structural measures to protect settlements on floodplains may still suffer significant losses during extreme events. This study illustrates how predictions formed through social science theories can be applied and tested in hydrological modelling.  相似文献   

Comparing performance indicators to characterize the water supply to the demands of the Guadiana River basin (Spain)     

Carla Palop-Donat  Javier Paredes-Arquiola  Abel Solera  Joaquín Andreu 《水文科学杂志》2020,65(7):1060-1074

ABSTRACT

Water indicators and indices are useful tools to assess river basin performance, that is, to measure whether the basin operates satisfactorily under a wide range of possible future demands and hydrological conditions. Spanish regulations assess the performance of water demands by using reliability indicators (RIs), established by law in 2008. This article raises the possibility of updating RIs by comparing them with sustainability indicators (SIs). SIs are widely used for the assessment of river basin performance and several policy scenarios. We applied a water allocation model to the Guadiana River basin in Spain to compare indicators under three scenarios. The study was framed within the science of socio-hydrology, combining the physical environment of a water system with its influence on social aspects. SIs gave better results than RIs when comparing future scenarios. We also propose the introduction of a vulnerability indicator into Spanish regulations.  相似文献   

Introduction: The complex tapestry of everyday life     

Kajsa Ellegård  Ben de Pater 《GeoJournal》1999,48(3):149-153

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Ecosystem health assessment based on analysis of a land use database     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2013

Data resources and assessment frameworks are two keys to ecosystem health assessment (EHA). Application of the land use database together with the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) model in EHA provides better precision relative to traditional data resources and assessment frameworks for EHA at the county scale. The raw data are taken from The Anlu County Annals, The Soil Records of Anlu County, and The Statistical Yearbook of National Economy in Anlu County. The spatial and attribute data are partly extracted from the database of current land use in Anlu City using the MAPGIS platform. Based on the results from principal component analysis (PCA), a total of eleven indicators were selected to build an indicator system designed to assess the ecosystem health at the county scale. According to the PSR model, the scores from three indices (press index, state index, and response index) and a comprehensive assessment index (CAI) were calculated, and an assessment map was constructed. The results from the index scores and spatial analysis display a large range for the state of ecosystem health due to the evolution of natural ecosystems and human activities at the county scale. The precision of the current land use database (scale of 1:10,000) makes it a better candidate for evaluating ecosystem health than the traditional data resources. This study also demonstrates the numerous benefits of combining land use databases with GIS functions to assess ecosystem health at the county scale.  相似文献   

Derivation of a resilient polygon centroid for natural resource management applications     

E. Farmer  S.D. Jones  R.E. Deakin 《International journal of geographical information science》2013,27(9):1545-1558

This paper reviews the utility of polygon centroid algorithms for natural resource management applications. Following a review of ‘standard’ centroid derivation algorithms, and their limitations, alternative approaches are proposed. Building upon current polygon-reduction algorithms an iterative edge-erosion model is presented. Resilient centroids derived via this model are shown to: (1) maximise the distance to all internal and external edges; (2) be located within the polygon boundary; and (3) be insensitive to patch vertex outliers.

The resilient centroid is demonstrated to have utility in a range of natural resource management applications including the matching of disparate data sources. Exemplar studies conclude that resilient centroids support an appropriate allocation of vegetation condition point samples both within and between native vegetation patches. Further, the utilisation of resilient centroids enables the (1) sub-division of vegetation patches into homogenous regions (core areas) and (2) interrogation of the relationship between vegetation condition and core area proximity.  相似文献   

A Rising Tide in Bangladesh: livelihood adaptation to climate stress     

Jonathon Collins 《The Australian geographer》2014,45(3):289-307

ABSTRACT

Bangladesh is at the forefront of countries experiencing and debating climate change, despite having contributed little to global emissions, and has the greatest vulnerability to climate change due to inadequate institutional support for the dense population dispersed in low-lying terrain. A micro-level study of livelihoods in the Panpatti Union, a district of the coastal zone exposed to climate stress and an array of other social, economic and political stresses, demonstrated that adaptation strategies to a range of shocks were both reactive and proactive. The persistent nature of shocks, and the limited margins in which to respond, meant that achieving sustainable long-term livelihoods was unusually difficult. Despite cases of dynamism and flexibility, where livelihoods had been effectively diversified, rural people largely failed to reduce their exposure to vulnerability. That was especially true of extremely poor, landless and female-headed households. In such challenging circumstances external interventions were required to ensure sustainable development, but were unlikely because of the isolation of Panpatti and the number of villages and people in similar circumstances. This emphasised the need to develop a more robust livelihoods framework to support the most vulnerable communities in severe economic and environmental contexts where climate change is likely to exacerbate all existing problems.  相似文献