Network governance and climate change adaptation: collaborative responses to the Queensland floods

Abstract This research examines ways to build adaptive capacity to climate change, through a case study of organisations that participated in the response to Queensland’s major flood disaster in Queensland in 2010/11. The research applied a network governance approach, including social network analysis and qualitative investigations, to the communities of Rockhampton, Emerald and Brisbane. The study was designed to compare social networks across a range of different geographical; functional; and institutional and regulatory contexts.Primary data were obtained from organisations involved in disaster management and water management, through a telephone survey conducted March – September 2012. The network analyses examined collaboration and communication patterns; changes in the network structure from routine management to flood operations; similarities and differences between the geographic regions, and whether collaboration was correlated with trust. A cultural values analysis was then performed to identify the key values of the network actors in each region. Two workshops were conducted in Rockhampton and Brisbane to disseminate the findings to stakeholders, as well as to obtain feedback through group activities.A total of 63 organisations participated in the study. As the network analyses and visualisations indicated that the Rockhampton and Emerald networks were tightly interconnected, a single ‘Central Queensland’ (CQ) network was used for all subsequent analyses. In both Brisbane and CQ, slightly higher levels of collaboration amongst organisations were recorded during flood periods compared with routine operations; and organisations tended to provide, as well as receive, information and/or resources from their collaborators. Overall, both networks appeared to feature high trust, with only a low level of difficult ties (problematic relationships) being reported.The cultural analyses identified patterns of common values amongst participating organisations. In Brisbane, respondents placed a high value on shared information systems and resources; shared communication and language; as well as on collaboration and flexibility. In the CQ network, there was a greater emphasis on local solutions, community wellbeing and longitudinal issues (such as post-disaster supply chains for recovery). The workshop activities suggested that the current structure of Local Disaster Management Groups was heavily influential on broader network participation; and that defining an ‘effective’ disaster response was a complex issue.This study has demonstrated that a network governance approach can provide new ways of understanding the core elements of adaptive capacity, in areas such as enablers and barriers to adaptation, and translating capacity into adaptation. The key implications for policy and practice include the need for stakeholders to drive adaptation to climate change through collaboration and communication; the need for stakeholders to share a common goal and language; the need for better engagement with community, diversity and Indigenous organisations; the need to establish collaboration outside of disaster events; and the need for network governance systems to play an important role in helping to facilitate climate change adaptation. The areas identified for future research included further methodological development and longitudinal studies of social networks, understanding effective modes of communication, and the influence of the changing nature of regional Australian communities on climate change adaptation.Please cite this report as:Kinnear, S, Patison, K, Mann, J, Malone, E, Ross, V 2013, Network governance and climate change adaptation: collaborative responses to the Queensland floods, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 113.This research examines ways to build adaptive capacity to climate change, through a case study of organisations that participated in the response to Queensland’s major flood disaster in Queensland in 2010/11. The research applied a network governance approach, including social network analysis and qualitative investigations, to the communities of Rockhampton, Emerald and Brisbane. The study was designed to compare social networks across a range of different geographical; functional; and institutional and regulatory contexts.Primary data were obtained from organisations involved in disaster management and water management, through a telephone survey conducted March – September 2012. The network analyses examined collaboration and communication patterns; changes in the network structure from routine management to flood operations; similarities and differences between the geographic regions, and whether collaboration was correlated with trust. A cultural values analysis was then performed to identify the key values of the network actors in each region. Two workshops were conducted in Rockhampton and Brisbane to disseminate the findings to stakeholders, as well as to obtain feedback through group activities.A total of 63 organisations participated in the study. As the network analyses and visualisations indicated that the Rockhampton and Emerald networks were tightly interconnected, a single ‘Central Queensland’ (CQ) network was used for all subsequent analyses. In both Brisbane and CQ, slightly higher levels of collaboration amongst organisations were recorded during flood periods compared with routine operations; and organisations tended to provide, as well as receive, information and/or resources from their collaborators. Overall, both networks appeared to feature high trust, with only a low level of difficult ties (problematic relationships) being reported.The cultural analyses identified patterns of common values amongst participating organisations. In Brisbane, respondents placed a high value on shared information systems and resources; shared communication and language; as well as on collaboration and flexibility. In the CQ network, there was a greater emphasis on local solutions, community wellbeing and longitudinal issues (such as post-disaster supply chains for recovery). The workshop activities suggested that the current structure of Local Disaster Management Groups was heavily influential on broader network participation; and that defining an ‘effective’ disaster response was a complex issue.This study has demonstrated that a network governance approach can provide new ways of understanding the core elements of adaptive capacity, in areas such as enablers and barriers to adaptation, and translating capacity into adaptation. The key implications for policy and practice include the need for stakeholders to drive adaptation to climate change through collaboration and communication; the need for stakeholders to share a common goal and language; the need for better engagement with community, diversity and Indigenous organisations; the need to establish collaboration outside of disaster events; and the need for network governance systems to play an important role in helping to facilitate climate change adaptation. The areas identified for future research included further methodological development and longitudinal studies of social networks, understanding effective modes of communication, and the influence of the changing nature of regional Australian communities on climate change adaptation

Use of a Fuzzy Decision-making Approach in an Analysis of the Vulnerability of Street Networks for Disaster Management

Disaster management with respect to urban structures has received more attention in recent years. In disaster management, the most vulnerable structures in a modern society are the critical networks, such as transportation networks. The vulnerability analysis of spatial networks should not depend only on the topological structure; some non-topological attributes, such as population information, should also be considered. In a rescue operation, decision-making problems are very often uncertain or vague because of the lack of information. Therefore, the classi cation of a high or low-risk area on the basis of spatial information should not have crisp boundaries and it would be more reasonable to use a fuzzy approach. In this paper, population information and a betweenness centrality measure of the road network were used as the evaluation criteria, and a fuzzy multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) approach was used to support a vulnerability analysis of the road network of Finland for disaster management. In order to validate the model, results were compared with original population information and a betweenness attribute map. The validation results showed the hotspots in a fuzzy MADM vulnerability map have a similar pattern to an original input attributes map and the number of hotspots were reduced to a reasonable scale in order to improve rescue e ciency

Local Knowledge Adaptations for Landslide Disasters Risk Reduction in Rural Mountain Communities

国立大学法人長岡技術科学大学博士（工学）Articledoctoral thesi

Gobernanza resiliente posterior a la crisis en la región Centro (Portugal) después de los incendios forestales de 2017

Los sistemas de gobernanza, al abordar la acción posterior al desastre, juegan un papel importante para minimizar la vulnerabilidad de la comunidad en futuros eventos disruptivos. La literatura describe cómo las acciones posteriores al desastre hacia medidas de resistencia y resiliencia a menudo se implementan, cambiando a enfoques de resiliencia adaptativa como una segunda preocupación, y sin tener en cuenta las estrategias transformadoras de resiliencia. Dos incendios forestales consecutivos en la Región Centro (Portugal), en 2017, cortaron el acceso a los Servicios de Interés General (SGI) y desequilibraron la estructura e identidad territorial socioeconómica (el impacto principal fue de 116 víctimas mortales). En este documento, se analiza la cobertura mediática del fenómeno durante los 12 meses posteriores al desastre utilizando una muestra de 150 artículos publicados en dos periódicos. Los discursos públicos son indicativos de la importancia general dada al impacto y a las respuestas basadas en medidas de resistencia y resistencia. Además, se discuten los desafíos teóricos y prácticos para el diseño de políticas y la organización de los sistemas de gobernanza en contextos posteriores a desastres.Governance systems, when addressing post-disaster action, play an important role in minimizing the community’s vulnerability in future disruptive events. The literature describes how post-disaster actions towards resistance-resilience measures are often implemented, shifting to adaptive-resilience approaches as a second concern, and disregarding resilience-transformative strategies. Two consecutive wildfires in the Centro Region (Portugal), in 2017, cut off access to the Services of General Interest (SGIs) and knocked off-balance the socioeconomic territorial structure and identity (the main impact was 116 mortal victims). In this paper, the media coverage of the phenomena during the 12 months following the disaster is analysed using a sample of 150 news articles published in two newspapers. The public discourses are indicative of the overall importance given to the impact and to the responses based on resistance-resilience measures. Moreover, the theoretical and practical challenges for the policy design and organization of the governance systems in post-disaster contexts is discussed

National Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change Impacts: A Case Study of Mozambique

human development, climate change

Using Space Syntax For Estimation Of Potential Disaster Indirect Economic Losses

The study of applicable network measures shows that Normalised Angular Choice can be used as criteria for selecting alternatives for minimizing indirect costs caused by road network damages. At the same time, this methodology cannot be used for monetizing indirect costs or identifying losses in different economic sectors. The study approach does not contradict the main theoretical approaches and it gives new opportunities for research on disasters recovery

Who is connected with whom? A social network analysis of institutional interactions in the european CCA and DRR landscape

Communication and collaboration are critical for designing and implementing responses to climate change impacts and related disasters. This acknowledgement has increased interest in understanding social and institutional networks for climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). In this study, we used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore institutional interactions within and across the communities of the aforementioned domains in Europe. Firstly, we investigated the type and intensity of interactions. We calculated SNA metrics to assess the roles of different actors and applied cluster analysis to identify actors with similar patterns of connections. SNA showed that communication is often more intensive within the two communities, while collaboration is frequent around topics related to both CCA and DRR. Cluster analysis revealed that actors tied with DRR were more closely connected, while actors tied with CCA and those with mixed connections showed no obvious clustering affinity. The European Climate Adaptation Platform, Climate-ADAPT, had the highest value for various SNA metrics, reflecting its popularity in the network and its potential for enhancing interactions among its actors. Finally, SNA was complemented by qualitative interviews, which emphasised the importance of connecting CCA and DRR in organisational mission and vision statements.The research presented in this paper was conducted in the context of the PLACARD project (Grant agreement No. 653255), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Framework programme. The project aims at sharing knowledge and enhancing collaboration between the CCA and DRR research, policy and practice communities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Institutional Vulnerability and Governance of Disaster Risk Reduction: Macro, Meso and Micro Scale Assessment : With Case Studies from Indonesia

This PhD research addresses two central questions: How should institutional vulnerability that shapes disaster risks and disaster reduction policy be assessed? How does the quality of institutions and governance influence the level of disaster risk and disaster reduction policy? In this dissertation, institutional vulnerability at global and local levels is analyzed and an answer to such questions is pursued. General vulnerability assessment frameworks on the global scale and local scale have limitations in measuring how and to what extent institutions in all countries can reduce risks. This PhD dissertation is pioneering in that it assesses global institutional vulnerability using an index-based approach on a national/local scale by employing mixed methods such as social network analysis complemented by qualitative approaches (e.g. participant observation and literature reviews) and quantitative approaches (simple regression, scatter plots and simple descriptive statistics). In this dissertation, it is hypothesized that the countries with greater institutional quality tend to have better governance over disaster risks, which leads to a higher level of disaster risk resilience. Risk assessors have often overlooked institutions. In fact, when one assesses vulnerability, for example, social/human vulnerability (such as using health, education, human development indices), physical vulnerability (quality of physical housing and infrastructure), economic vulnerability (income, economic production), and environmental vulnerability (land degradation, environmental quality indicators), the assessor essentially measures the “outcomes” of the institutions rather than the institutions directly. Institutional vulnerability to disaster risk is defined here as both the context and the process by which formal institutions (regulations, rule of law, constitutions, codes, bureaucracy, etc.), informal institutions (culture, norms, traditions, etc.), and governance are either too weak to provide protection against disaster risk or are ignorant of their duty to provide safety and human security. Central to this argument is the concept that institutions are designed, among others, to reduce risks. In this research, the focus is on disaster risks. This suggests a hypothesis that nations will fail to reduce risks owing to institutional and governance factors that modify their vulnerabilities and resilience. The findings show that both qualitative and quantitative methods at different scales of governance can assess institutional vulnerability and the governance of disaster risk reduction. At a global level, a quantitative approach to measuring institutional quality and governance disaster risk reduction is possible thanks to recent global data on countries’ implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action; however, more efforts are required in the future. At the meso- and microlevels, this work describes the history of institutions for disaster risk management in Indonesia from the colonial period until the present challenges of decentralized governance. The main message is as follows: without considering institutions, institutional quality, and specific governance of disaster reduction at macro-, meso-. and microscales, disaster risk reduction will not be sustainably implemented.Institutionelle Vulnerabilität und Beeinflussung der Qualität von Institutionen und Governance auf den Grad der Katastrophenvorsorge auf globaler und lokaler Ebene Diese Doktorarbeit befasst sich mit zwei zentralen Fragen: Wie sollte institutionelle Vulnerabilität von Massnahmen zu Katastrophenrisiken und -vorsorge beurteilt werden? Wie beeinflusst die Qualität von Institutionen und Governance den Grad der Katastrophenvorsorge? Diese Dissertation analysiert institutionelle Vulnerabilität auf globaler und lokaler Ebene, um eine Antwort auf diese Fragen zu geben. Allgemeine Beurteilungssysteme von Vulnerabilität auf globaler und lokaler Ebene sind in ihrer Aussagekraft darüber begrenzt, wie und in welchem Umfang Institutionen in allen Ländern Risiken tatsächlich reduzieren können. Diese Dissertation ist eine grundlegende Arbeit dahingehend, indem sie globale institutionelle Vulnerabilität mittels eines Index-basierten Ansatzes auf nationaler / lokaler Ebene misst ergänzt durch gemischte Methoden wie soziale Netzwerkanalyse sowie qualitative (z.B. teilnehmende Beobachtung und Literaturrecherchen) und quantitative Ansätze (z.B. einfache Regression, Scatter-Plot, einfache deskriptive Statistik). In dieser Disssertation wird die Hypothese aufgestellt, dass die Länder mit der höchsten institutionellen Qualität eine bessere Governance von Katastrophenrisiken haben, was zu einer höheren Widerstandskraft gegen Katastrophenrisiken führt. Risiko-Assessoren haben oftmals Institutionen übersehen. Im Falle der Messung von Vulnerabilität, z.B. soziale / menschliche Vulnerabilität (wie z.B. Gesundheit, Bildung, Indizes der menschlichen Entwicklung), physische Vulnerabilität (Qualität der physischen Behausung / Gebäude und Infrastruktur), ökonomische Vulnerabilität (Einkommen, Wirtschaftsproduktion) und Umweltvulnerabilität(Landverödung, Umweltqualitätindikatoren), misst ein Assessor eigentlich nur das "Resultat" von Institutionen, aber nicht die Institution direkt. Institutionelle Vulnerabilität gegenüber Katastrophenrisiken wird hier definiert als der Kontext wie auch der Prozess, durch die formale Insitutionen (Verordnungen, Gesetz, Verfassungen, Vorschriften, Verwaltung usw.), informelle Institutionen (Kultur, Normen, Traditionen usw.) sowie Governance so geschwächt werden, dass sie entweder keinen Schutz gegenüber Naturkatastrophen bieten oder zu Ignoranz gegenüber ihrer Aufgabe führen, für Sicherheit und menschlichen Schutz zu sorgen. Ein zentrales Argument ist die Vorstellung, dass Institutionen u.a dafür gestaltet wurden, um Risiken zu reduzieren. In dieser Forschungsarbeit wird der Schwerpunkt auf Katastrophenrisiken / Naturkatastrophen gelegt. Dies führte zu der Hypothese, dass Nationen nicht in der Lage sind, aufgrund institutioneller Faktoren und Governance, die ihre Vulnerabilität und Fähigkeit zur Abpufferung ändern, Risiken zu reduzieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass qualitative sowie quantitative Methoden auf verschiedenen Ebenen der Governance institutionelle Vulnerabilität und Governance der Katastrophenvorsorge messen können. Auf globaler Ebene ist die Anwendung eines quantitativen Ansatzes zur Messung der Qualität von Institutionen und Governance zur Reduzierung von Naturkatastrophen möglich dank der zur Verfügung stehenden globalen Daten aus Ländern, die das Hyogo Framework for Action eingesetzt haben. Trotzdem sind stärkere Anstrengungen in der Zukunft nötig. Auf der Meso- und Mikroebene beschreibt diese Arbeit die historische Entwicklung von Institutionen zur Katastrophenvorsorge in Indonesien von der Kolonialzeit bis zu den aktuellen Herausforderungen einer dezentralisierten Verwaltungsstruktur. Die wichtigste Aussage ist die Tatsache, dass Katastrophenvorsorge nicht nachhaltig implementiert werden kann, ohne Insitutionen, die Qualität von Institutionen sowie die spezifische Governance der Risikoreduktion auf der Makro-, Meso- und Mikroebene zu berücksichtigen

A Temporal Social Resilience Framework of Communities to Disasters in Australia and Social Network Enabled Social Resilience

The frequency and impact of disasters is on an upward trajectory and, given considerations of climate change and population growth, is projected to continue to increase. There is therefore an imminent need to advance research on factors of disaster resilience and recovery in order to reduce the impacts of these future extreme events on society. This research focuses on identifying social resilience indicators and providing a novel framework for quantifying social resilience with the aim of enhancing the ability of communities to withstand disaster. Although there has been considerable research interest in various aspects of community resilience to disasters, there have been no studies to the author’s knowledge that have gathered all social resilience indicators and constructed a unified holistic framework to cover the three phases of the disaster management cycle (i.e., pre-disaster, response and recovery). Similarly, there have not been any studies that have used social network analysis to explore the impact of the role of social network positionality and structure on social resilience. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (i) identify the most essential social resilience indicators within communities from previous similar studies in all phases of disaster, (ii) assess these indicators against different case studies, through interviews with subject matter experts within the New South Wales State Emergency Service, then (iii) provide a unified and novel model for social resilience through the addition of (iv) data collected through an online survey within the SES volunteers from which the author (v) propose a framework for the effect of social networks on social resilience. To this effect, the author conducted two phases of research, the first relying on literature review and in-depth interviews and the second relying an online survey for data collection. The results of these were then used to propose the addition of social network analysis. The study seeks not only to advance the state of knowledge on social resilience to disaster, but also to produce actionable knowledge that can improve community preparation for and response to disaster

Who is connected with whom? A Social network analysis of institutional interactions in the European CCA and DRR landscape

Communication and collaboration are critical for designing and implementing responses to climate change impacts and related disasters. This acknowledgement has increased interest in understanding social and institutional networks for climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). In this study, we used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to explore institutional interactions within and across the communities of the aforementioned domains in Europe. Firstly, we investigated the type and intensity of interactions. We calculated SNA metrics to assess the roles of different actors and applied cluster analysis to identify actors with similar patterns of connections. SNA showed that communication is often more intensive within the two communities, while collaboration is frequent around topics related to both CCA and DRR. Cluster analysis revealed that actors tied with DRR were more closely connected, while actors tied with CCA and those with mixed connections showed no obvious clustering affnity. The European Climate Adaptation Platform, Climate-ADAPT, had the highest value for various SNA metrics, reflecting its popularity in the network and its potential for enhancing interactions among its actors. Finally, SNA was complemented by qualitative interviews, which emphasised the importance of connecting CCA and DRR in organisational mission and vision statements