AdaptNet for 13 January 2009

1. Bushfire Vulnerability Assessment and Local Governments
2. RMIT’s Design Hub and Climate Change Adaptation
3. Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems
4. Climate Change, Oil Dependence and the Transition to Resilience
5. Addressing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change
6. The Nautilus Institute, San Francisco – Position Available

Bushfire Vulnerability Assessment and Local Governments        

The paper undertakes a bushfire vulnerability assessment as the first-step in a project to investigate local government perceptions of climate vulnerability and adaptive capacity through a case study from Sydney, Australia. It identifies a series of relevant biophysical and socio-economic indicators and develops maps of net landscape vulnerability to bushfire.              

Igniting Change in Local Government: Lessons Learned from a Bushfire Vulnerability Assessment, B. L. Preston et al., Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, 29 November 2008 [743 KB, PDF]

RMIT’s Design Hub and Climate Change Adaptation

RMIT’s Design Hub is being developed to incorporate the latest environmentally-friendly technologies. It is designed with climate change adaptation in mind. Features include innovative floor vents that reduce the need for mechanical ventilation, and an outer ‘skin’ of sand-blasted glass cells, some of which will be PV, to help both shade and power the building.             

Design Hub, RMIT Design Group, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne, Australia, January 2009 

Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems      

The report provides information on the state of knowledge regarding adaptation options for key, representative ecosystems and resources that may be sensitive to climate variability and change. It helps reduce the potential impacts of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other sensitive ecosystems.           

Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources, Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.4, U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, June 2008

Climate Change, Oil Dependence and the Transition to Resilience   

The paper looks at the complex interaction between climate change, oil dependence and changes to the infrastructure and logistics for the distribution of fuel and food. It argues that we are inadvertently increasing our economic vulnerability at just the point when we should be developing greater resilience to external shocks. The paper highlights contemporary and historical examples from the UK and internationally to reverse this trend.               

Nine Meals from Anarchy: Climate Change, Oil Dependence and the Transition to Resilience, Andrew Simms, The New Economics Foundation (nef), London, UK, November 2008 [1.13 MB, PDF]   

Addressing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change       

The paper offers a unifying conceptual framework that links risks, adaptation, and vulnerability. It applies the framework to examine adaptation strategies at different levels and to identify no-regrets approaches. The paper offers a preliminary discussion of the role of community-led adaptation and social protection interventions.            

Addressing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change: Toward a ‘No Regrets’ Approach, Rasmus Heltberg, Paul Bennett Siegel and Steen Lau Jorgensen, The World Bank, 21 November 2008

The Nautilus Institute, San Francisco – Position Available      

The Nautilus Institute, a not-for-profit research institute that focuses on security and sustainable development issues in East Asia and Oceania, seeks a Program Manager to lead or assist on several projects involving energy security, implications of climate disruption, and the nuclear fuel cycle.   

Employment Opportunity – Science and Technology Program Manager, Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network, The Nautilus Institute, San Francisco, CA USA, January 2009