Sustainable development in a region: A practical approach to targeting environmental impacts

In this paper a model is put forward for setting targets for ecologically sustainable development in a region. The approach is practical and should be applicable to any region. A case study approach facilitates the development of the environmental impact model of Ehrlich and Holdren (1974). Targets for a region's population and water quality are discussed in some detail with the help of the model. The region, the far north of Queensland, Australia, is centred on the Cairns district, which is growing rapidly due to tourism, but is impacting surrounding valuable ecosystems. As well as exploring the environmental impacts of change in the interacting variables of population, consumption and technology, the article contains discussion on setting environmental rehabilitation targets. Major regional externalities would be removed by the achievements of regional water quality improvements. However, other externalities could be generated by the imposition of a limit on regional population. A regional inventory is exampled which could form the basis for regional and (collectively) national environmental accounting.

Typical social adaptation measures in climate change planning: a tropical region case study

While many regions across the globe are vulnerable to climate change (Hare, Cramer, Schaeffer, Battaglini, & Jaeger, 2011), planning for climate change adaptation has tended to focus its efforts on biophysical and engineering adaption responses (Stanley, 2010). The social dimension of these kinds of adaptation responses is typically framed around inclusive citizen participation (Chu, Anguelovski, & Carmin, 2016) or community-based governance approaches to climate planning (Forsyth, 2013). For vulnerable groups and geographies exposed to the more frequent and severe effects of climate change, however, broader social adaptations are needed to enable them to participate in and take effective leadership of climate adaptation outcomes (Chu et al., 2016; Dodman & Mitlin, 2013; Warrick, 2011)