Optimizing historic preservation under climate change: Decision support for cultural resource adaptation planning in national parks

AbstractThe climate is changing rapidly, and this may pose a major threat to global biodiversity. One of the most distinctive consequences of climate change is the poleward and/or upward shift of species distribution ranges associated with increasing temperatures, resulting in a change of species composition and community structure in the forest ecosystems. The Baekdudaegan mountain range connects most forests from the lowland to the subalpine zone in South Korea and is therefore recognized as one of the most important biodiversity hotspots. This study was conducted to understand the distribution range of vascular plants along elevational gradients through field surveys in the six national parks of the Baekdudaegan mountain range. We identified the upper and lower distribution limits of a total of 873 taxa of vascular plants with 117 families, 418 genera, 793 species, 14 subspecies, 62 varieties, two forms, and two hybrids. A total of 12 conifers were recorded along the elevational gradient. The distribution ranges of Abies koreana, Picea jezoensis, Pinus pumila, and Thuja koraiensis were limited to over 1000 m above sea level. We also identified 21 broad-leaved trees in the subalpine zone. A total of 45 Korean endemic plant species were observed, and of these, 15 taxa (including Aconitum chiisanense and Hanabusaya asiatica) showed a narrow distribution range in the subalpine zone. Our study provides valuable information on the current elevational distribution ranges of vascular plants in the six national parks of South Korea, which could serve as a baseline for vertical shifts under future climate change.

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Integrating climate change adaptation in coastal governance of the Barcelona metropolitan area

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change ◽

10.1007/s11027-021-09953-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Inga J. Sauer ◽

Elisabet Roca ◽

Míriam Villares

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Metropolitan Area ◽

Management Practice ◽

National Level ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Coastal Protection ◽

Adaptive Governance ◽

Governance Structures ◽

Coastal Governance

AbstractCoastal cities are exposed to high risks due to climate change, as they are potentially affected by both rising sea levels and increasingly intense and frequent coastal storms. Socio-economic drivers also increase exposure to natural hazards, accelerate environmental degradation, and require adaptive governance structures to moderate negative impacts. Here, we use a social network analysis (SNA) combined with further qualitative information to identify barriers and enablers of adaptive governance in the Barcelona metropolitan area. By analyzing how climate change adaptation is mainstreamed between different administrative scales as well as different societal actors, we can determine the governance structures and external conditions that hamper or foster strategical adaptation plans from being used as operational adaptation tools. We identify a diverse set of stakeholders acting at different administrative levels (local to national), in public administration, science, civil society, and the tourism economy. The metropolitan administration acts as an important bridging organization by promoting climate change adaptation to different interest groups and by passing knowledge between actors. Nonetheless, national adaptation planning fails to take into account local experiences in coastal protection, which leads to an ineffective science policy interaction and limits adaptive management and learning opportunities. Overcoming this is difficult, however, as the effectiveness of local adaptation strategies in the Barcelona metropolitan area is very limited due to a strong centralization of power at the national level and a lack of polycentricity. Due to the high touristic pressure, the legal framework is currently oriented to primarily meet the demands of recreational use and tourism, prioritizing these aspects in daily management practice. Therefore, touristic and economic activities need to be aligned to adaptation efforts, to convert them from barriers into drivers for adaptation action. Our work strongly suggests that more effectively embedding adaptation planning and action into existing legal structures of coastal management would allow strategic adaptation plans to be an effective operational tool for local coastal governance.

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Taking ownership of climate change: participatory adaptation planning in two local case studies from California

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences ◽

10.1007/s13412-011-0012-5 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 63-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Susanne C. Moser ◽

Julia A. Ekstrom

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Case Studies ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Local Case

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Envisioning Climate Change Adaptation Futures Using Storytelling Workshops

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126630 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6630

Author(s):

Rachel Harcourt ◽

Wändi Bruine de Bruin ◽

Suraje Dessai ◽

Andrea Taylor

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Local Community ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

The West ◽

Community Or ◽

Rebel Groups ◽

The Future ◽

The Government

Engaging people in preparing for inevitable climate change may help them to improve their own safety and contribute to local and national adaptation objectives. However, existing research shows that individual engagement with adaptation is low. One contributing factor to this might be that public discourses on climate change often seems dominated by overly negative and seemingly pre-determined visions of the future. Futures thinking intends to counter this by re-presenting the future as choice contingent and inclusive of other possible and preferable outcomes. Here, we undertook storytelling workshops with participants from the West Yorkshire region of the U.K. They were asked to write fictional adaptation futures stories which: opened by detailing their imagined story world, moved to events that disrupted those worlds, provided a description of who responded and how and closed with outcomes and learnings from the experience. We found that many of the stories envisioned adaptation as a here-and-now phenomenon, and that good adaptation meant identifying and safeguarding things of most value. However, we also found notable differences as to whether the government, local community or rebel groups were imagined as leaders of the responsive actions, and as to whether good adaptation meant maintaining life as it had been before the disruptive events occurred or using the disruptive events as a catalyst for social change. We suggest that the creative futures storytelling method tested here could be gainfully applied to support adaptation planning across local, regional and national scales.

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