With heightened awareness about the need to prepare for climate change, and increasing action in the climate change adaptation area across all scales and a range of sectors, the term ‘resilience building’ is being increasingly referred to. Climate change adaptation is not the only area in which the term is being applied – another is in response to the need to prepare for a low carbon era and a world with less oil. So is ‘resilience building’ a new buzz term or is the concept more significant than just the latest flavour of the month? The term ‘ecological sustainability’ met with similar questions in its early days of use.
If looking for a definition of ‘resilience’ there are two areas of focus with respect to climate change: ecosystem resilience, and resilience in social systems (including resilience of individuals and regional economies). In terms of climate change we need to consider both, since climate change itself is a condition of the natural system of which we humans are a part. In terms of resilience in social systems we can refer to the psychological definition for individuals where positive behavioural outcomes occur even when significant adversity, stress or shock is encountered. The exposure to adversity (perhaps a climatic event) and the positive adjustments resulting from the adversity (adaptation) demonstrates a degree of resilience. The positive adjustment may be structural or behavioural in nature. In a community-wide situation, a positive adjustment or adaptation may involve social reorganisation (based on the strength of community resilience) or the implementation of government adaptation programs. Indeed the preparation of adaptation strategies by governments (particularly local government) is another mechanism for building community resilience.
The Resilience Alliance, a leading international research group with a long interest in resilience thinking, refers to resilience as applied to ecosystems or integrated systems (human social systems and the natural environment). They refer to resilience as:
· the amount of change the system can undergo and still retain the same controls on function and structure;
· the degree to which the system is capable of self-organisation;
· the ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation.
When preparing society for climate change, identifying which elements will contribute to building resilience is an essential component of adaptation planning as it is facilitating the degree to which the system can adjust or self-organise to the new conditions placed on it. With respect to urban resilience Alberti et al. (2003)* consider resilience as the degree to which cities (i.e. constructed of urban communities and economies, buildings and infrastructure, government processes and programs) are able to tolerate alteration before re-organising around a new set of structures and processes. The new set of structures and processes would ultimately be the adaptive response.
Resilience building may start with the facilitation of social networks and building of community resources where these are poor, or may involve educating the community about their individual adaptation choices under changed conditions through to making adaptation options available (whether structural, technological or financial). An essential element of working to form a low carbon society and economy is the building of societal resilience to the impacts associated with the transition from the use of traditional technologies and behaviours to more sustainable technologies and behaviours. This may include the development of mechanisms to ease any transition costs associated with the evolution of a new low carbon economy.
Ultimately whether we are focused on climate change itself, the transition into a low carbon economy, or a future with less oil, a lack of investment in the building of social resilience (or the capacity of society to adjust and respond positively) runs the risk of increasing vulnerability to change. Further, the scientific uncertainty and element of ‘surprise’ associated with the regional impacts of climate change itself ultimately exposes less resilient systems (whether ecological, social or economic) to a higher degree of risk than might otherwise exist, so that reducing the degree of risk through resilience building and adaptation planning becomes essential.
* Alberti, M., Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E., Bradley, G., Ryan, C. and Zumbrunnen, C. (2003). Integrating Humans into Ecology: Opportunities and Challenges for Studying Urban Ecosystems. BioScience, 53: 1169-1179