The Margaret River region, in SW Australia, is a biodiversity 'hot spot', and an agricultural region famous for premium wine production, gastronomy and ecotourism. The authors explain that it is vulnerable to climate change and has also experienced rapid demographic growth, as the wine and tourism industries have expanded, and as a generally educated and frequently affluent population of retirees, second home owners, 'electronic cottagers' and alternative life-stylers have moved into this attractive area. Two projects, a local case study as part of a national evaluation of the adaptation of tourist areas to climate change and a focussed identification of particularly vulnerable locations and activities resulted in the identification of a number of current and potential adaptive strategies. The success of these projects – based on the adaptability and dynamism of the region – may in part be attributed to the relatively high levels of both education and environmental awareness of the local population. This allows communities like Margaret River to take on the role of front-runners, providing demonstrations and learning opportunities on managing the transition to sustainability and guidance and on how such methods may be adapted in other rural areas facing the challenges of climate change.

This article presents an examination of (1) key factors that are likely to influence the establishment and implementation of property acquisition and transferable development rights (TDR) programmes, for the purposes of enabling managed retreat from coastal hazard areas; and (2), local government attitudes to and perceptions of the potential extent to which these factors are likely to influence the successful implementation of such programmes. This research identifies various challenges that will need to be overcome if these programmes are to be successfully implemented by local government to enable managed retreat and potential solutions for resolving these challenges.

A range of regulatory instruments can be used to modify development-control frameworks for the purposes of adapting urban areas to climate change-induced coastal erosion and inundation. This article investigates the approach of three local governments across Australia. It finds that local governments are modifying development-control frameworks to ensure the appropriate development of vulnerable coastal lands. However, the article also demonstrates the limitations in relying on development control to achieve adaptation objectives such as preserving public beach amenity, and highlights the need for legislative reform or the emergence of incentive-based instruments to complement development control.

In this article we interview planners from local government authorities in Western Australia who are responsible for preparing coastal communities for the likely effects of sea level rise, to identify the preferences of these planners regarding the regulation of new coastal protection structures. We then examine how these preferences are likely to influence the achievement of the State coastal policy's public interest objectives. The article demonstrates that these planners have a clear preference against the long-term stabilisation of shorelines using hard structures, which aligns with the preferences outlined in the State policy. However, paradoxically, the current legislative and funding framework tends to encourage the continued adoption of protection measures to stabilise existing shoreline positions in order to maintain public beach amenity. In an era of sea level rise, this approach is likely to become increasingly unviable and undermine the achievement of State objectives. Recommendations are provided to help Western Australia achieve its public interest objectives.

Abstract Underwater photo-elicitation is a novel experiential marine education technique that combines direct experience in the marine environment with the use of digital underwater cameras. A program called Show Us Your Ocean! (SUYO!) was created, utilising a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative methods) to test the efficacy of this technique. Participants (adults and high school students) snorkelled, explored the ocean, and captured images both in and out of the water. Underwater photo-elicitation was proven effective at increasing awareness, eliciting emotional reactions, and fostering a sense of connection to the ocean. However, it was not necessarily effective for raising awareness of environmental issues nor for motivating pro-environmental behaviour. Interestingly, while some attitudes about and behaviours toward the ocean did become more environmentally sensitive, others appeared to shift unexpectedly away from environmental concern. This result was perhaps due to the lack in the program of an ecological knowledge-based component. Participants enjoying the beauty of the ocean did not realise the threats facing it or what to do about these. If the goal is to achieve significant attitude change and cultivate pro-environmental behaviour, this new approach should be supplemented with critical thinking/action competence and ecological/ocean literacy.

'What is a transition?' This question is pertinent in understanding the motivation amongst scientists, policy makers, practitioners, business actors and community groups in transitioning society towards sustainability. The Sustainability Transition Research Network and Transition Towns have emerged as two highly visible global networks, shaping and legitimising how transitions are interpreted and implemented. This ability to narrate and frame the 'transition concept' is significant in determining sustainability transitions in future. Yet, previous studies have not comparatively explored how transition knowledge is understood and defined both visually and textually by members belonging to these two global networks. Employing an innovative visual data collection methodology (the draw and write technique), we compare and contrast both the textual and visual representations of a transition across the two networks. The results suggest that there are some differences in worldviews between the two networks; however potential synergies between the two networks could promote a more comprehensive understanding of transitions, which better accounts for all aspects of social and technological change towards sustainability.

Sustainability and Development in Asia and the Pacific, pp. 167-182 (2018) No AccessChapter 9: Climate Change and Sustainability in Sri Lanka Coastal CommunityBuddika M. B. Bulathsinhalage, Dora Marinova and Laura StockerBuddika M. B. Bulathsinhalage, Dora Marinova and Laura Stockerhttps://doi.org/10.1142/9789813236004_0010Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract: The following sections are included: Introduction SLA Framework Framing Vulnerability Vulnerabilities of Coastal Livelihoods in Sri Lanka Livelihood Strategies and Fishing Communities in Sri Lanka Livelihood Strengths Institutions, Policies, and Processes Conclusions Acknowledgments References FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Sustainability and Development in Asia and the PacificMetrics History PDF download

This article investigates the range of spatial planning instruments being considered or implemented by local governments in Western Australia for responding to coastal erosion and inundation hazards. It examines whether the existing legislative framework is inhibiting the implementation of these instruments, or if any such inhibitions are due to other significant factors. Particular consideration is given to the revised State Coastal Planning Policy adopted in 2013. Using interviews with local planners this research finds that many instruments have been applied either in response to coastal hazards or for other planning purposes. However, widespread instrument use for adaptation purposes has been limited in the absence of sufficient implementation guidance. Significantly, the revised policy states an explicit preference for relocation over coastal protection. However, planners are unsure how these instruments can be used to implement relocation strategies in existing urban areas for the purposes of preserving public amenity, without significant investments in land acquisition.

Waste policy is increasingly moving on from the 'prevention of waste' to a 'sustainable materials policy' focused agenda recognising individual wastes as a resource. In order to comparatively analyse policy developments in enhanced waste management, three case studies were selected; San Francisco's Zero Waste Program, Flanders's Sustainable Materials Management Initiative and Japan's Sound Material-Cycle Society Plan. These case studies were chosen as an opportunity to investigate the variety of leading approaches, governance structures, and enhanced waste policy outcomes, emerging globally. This paper concludes that the current transitional state of waste management across the world, is only in the first leg of the journey towards Circular Economy closed loop production models of waste as a resource material. It is suggested that further development in government policy, planning and behaviour change is required. A focus on material policy and incorporating multiple front runners across industry and knowledge institutions are offered as potential directions in the movement away from end-pipe land-fill solutions.

•Canal estates types have different impacts from climate change, environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts.•Two case studies from Australia illustrate different issues for management and potential strategies for management.•Differing management is needed to mediate these issues given different governance and policy settings.

The last decade has seen a new wave of ambitious policies in order to address the mounting ecological damage caused by high levels of consumerism and the depletion of resources to manufacture short life-cycle products. In this paper ‘Zero Waste’ and ‘Sustainable Materials Management’ are examined as prominent labels of an evolving waste policy discourse towards waste prevention and reduction and material cycles. Using discourse analysis key documents are comparatively assessed, presenting the origins of these two concepts and how they entered the waste policy domain. The different framing tactics and governance models are then presented. The findings demonstrate that the different discourse paradigms around the concept of ‘waste’ and ‘materials’, influences what policy initiatives, measurement tools and outcomes are pursued. Although Zero Waste and Sustainable Materials Management are gaining popularity as indicators of shifting waste policy towards Sustainable Production and Consumption Policy, particularly with increasing discussion and application of Circular Economy governance models in Europe and China, a distinction still exists between the conceptualisation and implementation within and across the two concepts. It is in this transition towards a Circular Economy that it is valuable to review the role of policy labels, keywords and framing context in waste policy and the ability of enhanced waste management to assist in the development of more sustainable and environmentally acceptable economic and social behaviour models.

In this paper, we show how the Aboriginal people in the south-west of Australia (the Nyungar) developed systems of knowledge, of caring for country and of family relations that enabled them to survive for tens of thousands of years and continue to have importance today. The impacts of British colonisation on cultural continuity and knowledge in the south-west have been significant and include loss of land, break-up of families and massacre. These practices led to a loss of knowledge of language and culture in some cases. However, Nyungar culture is alive and dynamic, constantly being reclaimed, re-energised and rebuilt through the interaction of contemporary and traditional research praxis. Focusing on Derbal Nara (Cockburn Sound) on the coast in the southern metropolitan area of Perth, we provide case examples of the action-research-learning methodologies used by Whadjuk Nyungar Traditional Owners. We also provide examples of stories about Derbal Nara that are still alive and being recounted up to the present day, including those that account for the recent ice age and the end of the ice age 8000 years BC when sea levels rose, drowning land in the area of Derbal Nara. Finally, we argue that Whadjuk Nyungar experiences and world views based on relationality and reflexivity are central to sustainable coastal management and that in some respects there has already been a convergence of Indigenous and Western coastal management. We present a set of principles that support the development of this “third space” for coastal sustainability.

A cascade of climate and environmental changes, government intervention and economic responses has led to major social impacts on the Western Australian fishing community of the Abrolhos Islands. In 2006, a significant decline in the number of settling lobster larvae was met with major changes to the management of the fishery. The decline in larval settlement appears to be climate driven. Stocks were protected by reducing the overall catch, but these measures also led to a decrease in the number of fishers operating in the fishery. The management changes have resulted in the decline of this well-established fishing community. From the perspectives of fishing women, this paper explores the tension between the contribution that women make to fishing and their well-documented ‘invisibility’ in this industry. The authors suggest that the lack of management focus on social outcomes and subsequent community impacts are related to the invisibility of women in the fishing industry.

Thousands of kilometres of coastal residential waterways have been constructed across the globe, mostly in estuaries. These have caused significant environmental impact demonstrating a need for proper management and planning informed by science. Additional potential impacts of climate change, specifically sea-level rise, make coastal residential waterway developments by their nature particularly vulnerable, with restricted options for adaptation. This paper analyses Australian policies on coastal residential waterways over the last 50 years and the extent to which science, including estuarine and climate change science, has been incorporated into policy decisions or policy formulation. This analysis is in the context of theories on the uptake of science in policy-making and against a background of Australian government and inter-governmental reports indicating the vulnerable nature of low-lying coastal development. This paper reveals that coastal residential waterways referred to as canal estates occur in all Australian mainland states but given the lack of any national coastal policy, the onus is on each individual state to formulate its own policies. These policies are on a continuum from explicit, detailed science-based policy guidelines in some states, through implicit scientific impacts informing political decisions in other states, to generic environmental assessment procedures without specific reference to canal estate development. This paper concludes that the extent to which science has been incorporated into policy-making for canal estates is variable across the Australian states and appears to be heavily influenced by politics.

Conventional systems of government have not been very successful in resolving coastal management problems. This lack of progress is partially attributable to inadequate representation in governance processes of the variety of knowledges present on the coast. In particular there has been a struggle to engage effectively with climate science and its implications. There has also been a broader failure to capture the complexity of voices, interests, values, and discourses of coastal users. We argue here that coastal governance challenges are not likely to be resolved by singular solutions; rather, interaction and collaboration will generate improvements. We suggest that a co-requisite for progress in coastal management is the development of institutions and processes that enable different knowledges to have a bearing on governance processes. This paper examines a selection of the many opportunities available to broaden and enhance the use of knowledge in decision-making for the coast. A description is provided of emerging elements of coastal governance from an Australian perspective, together with new types of institutions, processes, tools and techniques that may help to achieve an improved coastal knowledge–governance interaction.