Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

179 Many local, state and national governments have developed comprehensive disaster management plans that encompass extreme climate events (e.g., State of NewYork [12], Public Safety Canada [13], Sahin et al. [14]). In Australia, the State Government of NewSouth Wales has well-developed emergency service capability for natural disasters and has implemented a State Emergency Management Plan [15]. It is based on an adaptive management system (learning from past events) and supported by local social capital (through community volunteer services). The Plan uses a 4-phase framework of prevent, prepare, respond and recover (PPRR). In the event of a natural disaster this framework is applied to inform government and its combat and support agencies of the appropriate administrative and operational responses throughout the duration of the event. While the Plan recognises the importance of reducing the level of risk to communities during the prevent and prepare phases, and the restoration of the environment during recover, in practice it focuses primarily, and necessarily, on saving lives and protecting property before, during and after an extreme event. Under climate change, a shift of focus may be required to better address the protection of natural resources from extreme events. This paper seeks to examine key questions in relation to the protection of natural resources from extreme climate events: Is the PPRR emergency management cycle useful for the range of events experienced by rural and regional communities? How does Government’s view of a community’s progress through the PPRR cycle accord with the lived experience of that community? In practice, how are natural resources currently considered in the management of extreme climate events? How can natural resource management be improved to ensure the prosperity and viability of rural and regional communities for an uncertain future? 2. RESULTS 2.1. Extreme Event Exposure The community’s perception of exposure in any particular landscape accorded closely with the mapped exposure levels shown in Figure 1 for each event type. Bushfire exposure was discussed in four regions: Palerang, Eurobodalla, Southern Highlands and the Far South Coast of NSW. Hazard mapping Figure 1 indicates that these regions all have large areas of the landscape that are exposed to bushfire; this is often co-located with human settlements, although the areas differ in the reasons for the high level of exposure. For the inland regions, grass fires, were identified as the major cause of exposure to bushfire for agricultural landholders. For coastal regions high levels of bushfire exposure are due to the extent and density of reserve areas (State Forests and National Parks). Exposure to bushfires in coastal areas is heightened by seasonal tourism. The peak tourist period (summer school holidays) coincides with peak fire danger, resulting in an influx of people relatively unconnected to local communication channels and with limited local knowledge of bushfire. Figure 1. Extreme event exposure to (L to R) bushfire, drought and flood for South East NSW.