Vulnerability of coastal communities and progress in climate change adaptation

Abstract

The high concentration of growing human settlements within the low-lying coastal zone of South East Queensland, Australia, has prompted the IPPC AR4 to explicitly identify the coastal SEQ region as highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Here Coastal settlements, distributed across five coastal councils, are extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise (SLR), changing wave climate and extreme sea levels associated with storm tides. We present here the results of a study looking at vulnerabilities and adaptation at the local scale. Following the IPCC recommendation, we used an approach combining exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity as a proxy of vulnerability. These results are then compared to the progress in adaptation using an ad-hoc indicator based on the analysis of existing adaptation policies in the coastal zone.