Role of Livelihood Capital in Reducing Climatic Vulnerability: Insights of Australian Wheat from 1990-2010

Can tourism development enhance livelihood capitals of rural households? Evidence from Huangshan National Park adjacent communities, China

Measuring the change of the livelihood capitals of rural households in park-adjacent communities under the background of tourism development is an important predictor to identify the sustainable development status of national parks. This paper constructs measurement indicators of the livelihood capitals of rural household in communities surrounding national parks and takes Huangshan National Park, located in eastern China, as an example to calculate characteristics of spatiotemporal changes in the livelihood capitals of rural households, analyze the effect of tourism development on livelihood capitals in adjacent communities in 2006 and 2015. The findings indicate that the annual growth of the total livelihood capital has comparatively strong rigidity. However, there are some differences in temporal changes between different types of livelihood capitals. The distribution of zones of medium and high livelihood capital is mainly distributed in the communities adjacent to the national park research, education and recreation area (RERA). In addition, the total livelihood capital takes the RERA as the centre and decays over distance, which demonstrates that tourism development is an effective way to enhance the livelihood capitals. On the other hand, there is a spatial attenuation effect of tourism development on the enhancement of the livelihood capitals.

Multi-Stakeholder Efforts to Adapt to Climate Change in China’s Agricultural Sector

Agricultural production is a crucial and fundamental aspect of a stable society in China that depends heavily on the climate situation. With the desire to achieve future sustainable development, China’s government is taking actions to adapt to climate change and to ensure food self-sufficiency. This paper assesses the scientific literature from both domestic and international journals, and the review policies released by the Chinese government, in order to investigate the adaptive actions being taken in China at the scale of the central government, and at the local administration and individual farmer level. The results demonstrate that China’s government has undertaken a multitude of adaptation programs in order to cope with vulnerability in the agricultural sector, and these include the release of stimulus policies, the support of new technological research, and investments in field facilities to strengthen the building of adaptive capacity. At the farmer household level, we found that people are spontaneously adapting to climate change on their own accord by changing the timing of cultivations, and through the selection of other crop species and cultivars. People are also securing non-land-related jobs when confronted with climate disasters. A summary is presented of the various agricultural adaptation policies and technologies. Although China has made great progress in terms of adapting to climate change, there is still more work that needs to be done. This work entails not just agricultural policy stimulation but also non-structural components, such as raising public awareness and providing adaptive skill training, etc. It can be concluded that agriculture sector could seek advantages and avoid disadvantages from adaptation activities by multiple stakeholders from different perspectives, and reduce the adverse effects of climate change. Climate adaptation strategies and actions are important and indispensable components for agricultural development in China, and more advanced technologies and ideologies are needed for a secure future.

Dynamics of resilience of wheat to drought in Australia from 1991-2010

Although enhancing resilience is a well-recognized adaptation to climate change, little research has been undertaken on the dynamics of resilience. This occurs because complex relationships exist between adaptive capacity and resilience, and some issues also create challenges related to the construction, operation, and application of resilience. This study identified the dynamics of temporal, spatial changes of resilience found in a sample of wheat–drought resilience in Australia’s wheat–sheep production zone during 1991–2010. I estimated resilience using principal component analysis, mapped resilience and its components, distinguished resilient and sensitive regions, and provided recommendations related to improving resilience. I frame that resilience is composed of social resilience including on- and off-site adaptive capacity as well as biophysical resilience including resistance and absorption. I found that resilience and its components have different temporal trends, spatial shifts and growth ratios in each region during different years, which results from complicated interactions, such as complementation and substitution among its components. In wheat-sheep zones, I recommend that identifying regional bottlenecks, science-policy engagement, and managing resilience components are the priorities for improving resilience.

Integration and Typologies of Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Case Study from Australian Wheat Sheep Zones

Although the integrated indicator methods have become popular for assessing vulnerability to climate change, their proliferation has introduced a confusing array of scales and indicators that cause a science-policy gap. I argue for a clear adaptation pathway in an "integrative typology" of regional vulnerability that matches appropriate scales, optimal measurements and adaptive strategies in a six-dimensional and multi-level analysis framework of integration and typology inspired by the "5W1H" questions: "Who is concerned about how to adapt to the vulnerability of what to what in some place (where) at some time (when)?" Using the case of the vulnerability of wheat, barley and oats to drought in Australian wheat sheep zones during 1978-1999, I answer the "5W1H" questions through establishing the "six typologies" framework. I then optimize the measurement of vulnerability through contrasting twelve kinds of vulnerability scores with the divergence of crops yields from their regional mean. Through identifying the socioeconomic constraints, I propose seven generic types of crop-drought vulnerability and local adaptive strategy. Our results illustrate that the process of assessing vulnerability and selecting adaptations can be enhanced using a combination of integration, optimization and typology, which emphasize dynamic transitions and transformations between integration and typology.