scholarly journals Social Vulnerability Indicators for Flooding in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 3952
Author(s):  
Kylie Mason ◽  
Kirstin Lindberg ◽  
Carolin Haenfling ◽  
Allan Schori ◽  
Helene Marsters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Vulnerability Indicators

Social vulnerability indicators are a valuable tool for understanding which population groups are more vulnerable to experiencing negative impacts from disasters, and where these groups live, to inform disaster risk management activities. While many approaches have been used to measure social vulnerability to natural hazards, there is no single method or universally agreed approach. This paper proposes a novel approach to developing social vulnerability indicators, using the example of flooding in Aotearoa New Zealand. A conceptual framework was developed to guide selection of the social vulnerability indicators, based on previous frameworks (including the MOVE framework), consideration of climate change, and a holistic view of health and wellbeing. Using this framework, ten dimensions relating to social vulnerability were identified: exposure; children; older adults; health and disability status; money to cope with crises/losses; social connectedness; knowledge, skills and awareness of natural hazards; safe, secure and healthy housing; food and water to cope with shortage; and decision making and participation. For each dimension, key indicators were identified and implemented, mostly using national Census population data. After development, the indicators were assessed by end users using a case study of Porirua City, New Zealand, then implemented for the whole of New Zealand. These indicators will provide useful data about social vulnerability to floods in New Zealand, and these methods could potentially be adapted for other jurisdictions and other natural hazards, including those relating to climate change.

scholarly journals Zero Carbon Building Practices in Aotearoa New Zealand

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4455
Author(s):  
Thao Thi Phuong Bui ◽  
Suzanne Wilkinson ◽  
Niluka Domingo ◽  
Casimir MacGregor
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Zero Carbon

In the light of climate change, the drive for zero carbon buildings is known as one response to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Within New Zealand, research on climate change mitigation and environmental impacts of buildings has received renewed attention. However, there has been no detailed investigation of zero carbon building practices. This paper undertakes an exploratory study through the use of semi-structured interviews with government representatives and construction industry experts to examine how the New Zealand construction industry plans and implements zero carbon buildings. The results show that New Zealand’s construction industry is in the early stage of transiting to a net-zero carbon built environment. Key actions to date are focused on devising a way for the industry to develop and deliver zero carbon building projects. Central and local governments play a leading role in driving zero carbon initiatives. Leading construction firms intend to maximise the carbon reduction in building projects by developing a roadmap to achieve the carbon target by 2050 and rethinking the way of designing and constructing buildings. The research results provide an insight into the initial practices and policy implications for the uptake of zero carbon buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand.

scholarly journals Animals and social work: An emerging field of practice for Aotearoa New Zealand

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 24-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Walker ◽  
Jenny Aimers ◽  
Claire Perry
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Human Animal Bond ◽  
Human Animal

Social work is traditionally human-centered in practice, even though for many the bond between humans and animals is the most fundamental of daily-lived experiences. The intent of this paper is to reflect on the predominant humanistic basis of social work and to consider the growing evidence for developing a wider perspective to incorporate the human-animal connection into social work practice. Joanne Emmens (2007:9) observes that the human-animal bond is considered by some as ‘…too mainstream (in the sense of being lightweight, cliché or sentimental), or as not mainstream enough…as substantial material worthy of study.’ In this article we argue that the human-animal bond is neither sentimental nor fringe and that our attitudes toward this relationship is based on a construction of western thought. To support this we offer a review of literature that provides evidence of good practice that can move social work beyond a purely humanistic approach to a more holistic view resulting in a more comprehensive toolkit for practice. We explore the literature and practice surrounding the place of animals in social work, both in New Zealand and internationally. In addition, we identify some of the ways the human-animal bond is currently utilised in rehabilitation, therapy, as animal assistants and as an indicator of domestic violence within New Zealand. We argue that this area of research and practice is highly relevant for social work as evidence-based practice. The paper con- cludes by offering some suggestions for discussion within the social work profession, and considerations for social work educators, researchers and theorists. 

scholarly journals Climate Change Adaptation in the Environment Court: Revisiting the 2010 Holt Case

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
CJ Iorns Magallanes ◽  
MJ Dicken
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Coastal Area ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Court Case ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

Common law precedents for some resource consent approvals in Aotearoa New Zealand are out of date due to the rapid increase in the science and understanding of the effects of climate change. This article considers one 2010 Environment Court case on a resource consent for building in the coastal area. It examines how the case would be decided if it arose today, with the benefit of the relevant law, policies and guidance now available to decision-makers. It suggests that the option taken by the Court in 2010, whereby the owners assumed the relevant inundation risks, would not be so available to a court today. This case is thus no longer good law.

Climate Change and Amplified Representations of Natural Hazards in Institutional Cultures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Bremer ◽  
Paul Schneider ◽  
Bruce Glavovic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Natural Hazard ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Risk Quantification ◽  
Institutional Cultures

Rapid climatic, natural and societal changes are altering the ways natural hazard risks are represented in societies, and in turn disrupting the ways people respond to these hazards. This poses an important challenge to how societies (re-)build institutions for governing or controlling risks. Institutions are systems of rules, norms and decision-making processes that structure our social interaction and practices. They organize how people define, plan for, and manage natural hazard risks; indeed, they create notions of risk. Going deeper, social sciences have defined institutions by the underlying “culture” on which they are built; the symbols, principles, core beliefs, and cognitive scripts that give institutions meaning. The culture structures how institutions represent the intertwined natural and social world that gives rise to natural hazard risks. Cultures work as a script for classing risks; giving people cues on how to understand and interpret the dangerous situations they find themselves in. Modern institutions are increasingly shaped by techno-scientific cultures, defining hazards and risks by their technically framed probability of physical harm, often expressed in terms of loss and damage. This risk quantification, and aspirations for precision, can give a false sense of control. But climatic change is already undermining, and threatening to undo, many of the long-held representations of natural and social order (and risk to this order) that steer institutions. Current case study research, in different places around the world, shows how climatic change is altering the way institutions interpret the natural hazards they manage in Bangladesh, New Zealand, and Norway for example. Dramatic climate change is confounding institutions’ cultures of risk quantification, and protection, shaking their claims to control natural hazards and undermining public trust in these institutions. One response is that institutions change the ways they define and class hazards, so that ordinary hazards are amplified as extraordinary. Faced with risks that are going beyond their experience and control, some institutions are compelled to unreflexively amplify well-intentioned protection-based responses, with at times unforeseen and disastrous consequences. Cases in Bangladesh and Norway both show how rushed river engineering works can evoke resistance from local communities. Emergency coastal protection can also have deleterious long-term social-ecological impacts, as experience shows in New Zealand. Scholars and practitioners alike recognize the need for critical reflection on how institutional cultures alter natural hazard risks according to climatic and other changes. This reflection is practical work that affects how people operate in institutions every day. It is structural work, as institutions change their rules as they learn more about risks. And it is work of social change, with social groups inside and outside institutions increasingly vocal in their criticism of changing climate risk framings. Case studies illustrate processes of institutional change, but equally, the resistance of institutions to change their cultures and notions of risk.

scholarly journals Climates of Change: A Tuatara’s-Eye View

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Boswell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Ultraviolet Light ◽  
Vulnerable Species ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Future ◽  
Sphenodon Punctatus ◽  
Soil Temperatures ◽  
Slow Breathing

The tuatara or New Zealand “spiny-backed lizard” (Sphenodon punctatus) is the sole surviving member of an order of reptiles that pre-dates the dinosaurs. Among its characteristics and peculiarities, the tuatara is renowned for being slow-breathing and long-lived; it possesses a third eye on the top of its skull for sensing ultraviolet light; and the sex of its progeny is determined by soil temperatures. This article unravels a tuatara’s-eye view of climate change, considering this creature’s survival across geological epochs, its indigenous lineage and its sensitivities to the fast-shifting conditions of the Anthropocene. This article examines the tuatara’s evolving role as an icon of biodiversity-under-threat and the evolving role of zoos and sanctuaries as explicators of climate change, forestallers of extinction, and implementers of the reproductive interventions that are increasingly required to secure the future of climate-vulnerable species. It is also interested in the tuatara as a witness to the rapid and ongoing human-wrought climate change which has secured the lifeworld reconstruction that is foundational to the settler colonial enterprise in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Linking this to the Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 262 report (Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, 2011), the article considers what the tuatara teaches about kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and climates of change.

From apathy through anxiety to action: emotions as motivators for youth climate strike leaders

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Maria L. Bright ◽  
Chris Eames
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Motivational Factors ◽  
Educational Framework ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Suitable Climate ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Pedagogy Of Discomfort ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract The climate strikes of 2019 motivated millions worldwide onto the street and provided a platform for youth voices that demanded global climate action. This article explores the experiences of climate strike leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand questioning the motivational factors behind the youth action. In-depth interviews with 15 climate strike leaders identified emotions that influenced engagement and could motivate action. Climate strike leaders reported experiencing a series of turbulent emotional stages from apathy to action. Their experiences suggest that anxiety and anger are important stages in the emotional journey towards action. Using Boler’s Pedagogy of Discomfort, this paper examines these emotional stages that can disable or enable action. Considering youth perspectives increases our understanding of a suitable climate change educational framework that potentially supports both educators and students on this challenging journey.

Risk perception and social vulnerability of population in coastal areas subject to climate change in two Mediterranean regions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loredana Antronico ◽  
Roberto Coscarelli ◽  
Sebastiano D'Amico ◽  
Francesco De Pascale ◽  
Dante Di Matteo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Scientific Cooperation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The University ◽  
Physical Phenomena

<p>Coastal areas are particularly sensitive to climate change. Owing to a significant increase in human activities and pressures, these areas have become particularly susceptible to extreme physical phenomena that increase the exposure and vulnerability of population. The Authorities ought to make strong efforts to: i) take the necessary measures and actions to reduce the negative impacts of the natural phenomena on the coastal areas, which are also due to the climate change; ii) investigate the factors that influence the communities’ perception of natural hazards and the climate change. Indeed, in order to effectively manage the negative impacts of climate change both considerable scientific know-how and of people’s perception of the risk associated to them is paramount.</p><p>Within this framework, a Research Project funded under the Agreement on Scientific Cooperation between CNR and the University of Malta (UoM) was developed. The Project is organized in order to synergistically combine the various scientific researches of the two partners (CNR-IRPI and University of Malta) in the context of natural hazards, public knowledge and perception of geo-hydrological risk and climate change. Calabria (Southern Italy) and Malta, the two Mediterranean regions considered as target areas for the Project, show different geomorphological and climatic settings but, although with different exposure levels, they are both affected by extreme physical phenomena and climate change.</p><p>The goals of the Project are the following: i) identify the population’s awareness, perception and preparation concerning the effects that climate change has on coastal areas through online and face to face questionnaires; ii) assess the social vulnerability and develop a specific Index of Social Vulnerability in relation to natural hazards in the target areas (Calabria and Malta); iii) propose useful tools to local authorities and to responsible of territory planning and of risk prevision, prevention and management; iv) raise awareness among stakeholders and citizens around the issues linked to the effects of climate change on the increased frequency of extreme natural events. In the first half of the Project, a survey based on questionnaire for analysing population’s perception of geo-hydrological risks and climate change was carried out and the obtained results were analysed. At the end of the Project, the results will help to perform a wider and more thorough risk analysis that takes into account the potential increase in exposure and vulnerability of coastal areas population as a result of climate change in the two Mediterranean regions.</p>

Coastal adaptation to climate change in Aotearoa-New Zealand

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
HL Rouse ◽  
RG Bell ◽  
CJ Lundquist ◽  
PE Blackett ◽  
DM Hicks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Coastal Adaptation ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document