Displacement Induced by Climate Change Adaptation: The Case of ‘Climate Buffer’ Infrastructure

Climate buffer infrastructure is on the rise as a promising ‘green’ climate adaptation strategy. More often than not, such infrastructure building is legitimized as an urgent technical intervention—while less attention is paid to the distribution of costs and benefits among the affected population. However, as this article shows, adaptation interventions may directly or indirectly result in the relocation or even eviction of households or communities, thereby increasing vulnerabilities for some while intending to reduce long-term climate vulnerabilities for all. We argue that this raises serious, if underappreciated, ethical issues that need to be more explicitly addressed in adaptation policy making. We illustrate our conceptual argument with the help of three examples of infrastructural ‘climate buffers’: Space for the River projects in the Netherlands, the Diamer–Bhasha dam in Pakistan and the coastal protection plan in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Bridging scientific and experiential knowledges via participatory climate adaptation research: A case study of dry farmers in Oregon

In western Oregon’s Willamette Valley, small fruit and vegetable growers have traditionally relied on irrigation to produce their crops. However, they are increasingly experiencing issues with water availability and access due to precipitation pattern changes associated with climate change. In 2016, the Dry Farming Collaborative (DFC) was developed as a participatory model for facilitating research, social networks, and resource-sharing among agricultural stakeholders to test the efficacy of dry farming as an adaptation strategy. Dry farming differs from irrigated cropping systems in that growers do not irrigate their fields and instead utilize a suite of practices to conserve soil moisture from winter rains for summer crop growth. To better understand how to meaningfully engage stakeholders in participatory climate adaptation research, this study explored how the participatory process facilitated the adoption of dry farming as a climate adaptation strategy among participants. Drawing on interviews with 20 DFC participants, including farmers, gardeners, and researchers, results indicate that the integration and use of different knowledge systems within the participatory research process made it easier for participants to integrate dry farming into their operational contexts. Processes designed to encourage interactions and information-sharing between participants and nonhierarchical researcher-grower relationships facilitated the exchange of these knowledge systems among participants, thus providing them with the trusted and salient information they needed to adopt new practices. Results indicate that these features could be useful for enacting future participatory climate research projects that lead to the adoption of effective adaptation strategies.

Co-producing uncertainty in public science: The case of genomic selection in forestry

Co-production can inform analysis and communication of the uncertainties associated with novel forms of science and technology. Genomic selection—a relatively novel management tool consisting of predictive modeling based on associations between genetic and phenotypic data—holds many unknowns, particularly when used as a climate adaptation strategy. Approaching genomic selection as an example of public science, we examined beliefs about uncertainty and public engagement in a community of forest research professionals. Findings show broad-ranging approaches to uncertainty, alongside a prevalence of deficit accounts of public engagement. Even with broad acknowledgment of a range of uncertainties, forestry experts nonetheless relied on statistical, quantitative methods to manage uncertainties, in ways that overshadowed discussions about ignorance, indeterminacy, and ambiguity. Social scientists can enhance the communication of uncertainty in public science by making apparent expert-based assumptions about knowledge and intended audiences.

Do low-elevation ravines provide climate refugia for subalpine limber pine (Pinus flexilis) in the Great Basin, USA?

Climate refugia are locations where decoupled climate processes enable species to persist despite unfavorable climate changes in surrounding landscapes. Despite theoretic bases and paleo-ecological evidence, refugia have not been widely characterized under modern conditions in mountain regions. Conifers in the Great Basin, USA, provide an opportunity to evaluate the potential of low-elevation ravine and riparian (LERR) contexts to function as climate refugia. We provide evidence for significantly higher than expected occurrence of limber pine (Pinus flexilis E. James) in LERR contexts (mean 64%) across 43 mountain ranges. We document with observed and modeled data that LERR contexts are cooler and wetter than expected for their elevations, have low solar radiation, and produce larger (more positive) lapse rates relative to upland slopes. Together these findings suggest that LERR contexts generate decoupled microclimates that provide climate refugia for limber pine. In that refugia management has been promoted as a contemporary climate adaptation strategy, our findings suggest that LERR contexts be further evaluated for their conservation potential.