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Understanding Public Preferences for Coastal Adaptation: Lessons from Australia and Canada
Dissertation   Open access

Understanding Public Preferences for Coastal Adaptation: Lessons from Australia and Canada

Angela Mallette
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00867
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Thesis Open Access

Abstract

Climate change impacts and adaptation climate change coastal climate change adaptation public support public preferences adaptive capacity
Adaptation to climate change in coastal areas is urgently required to minimise impacts and foster resilient communities, but a significant implementation gap exists. Several factors – including economic, financial, institutional, technological, ecological, or social – contribute to the outcomes of adaptation, and the need to address these varied range of challenges has been widely recognised. But limits to adaptation are endogenous to societies, and effective coastal adaptation, and societal transformation more broadly, are contingent on and underpinned by public sentiment. Research on public support for coastal adaptation is growing, but a more nuanced, multi-dimensional understanding is needed. In response, the purpose of the research was to contribute a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of public preferences for coastal adaptation. Four research questions and associated objectives were formulated to contribute to this purpose and to respond to specific knowledge gaps: (1) what types of coastal adaptation do coastal residents support and why?; (2) can coastal residents be grouped based on their arrangement of preferences for different types of coastal adaptation?; (3) what is the diversity of adaptation support and inclination to support a range of options?; and (4) how do types of events (rapid or slow-onset) affect preferences? These questions are explored in two case study sites: Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia, and Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada. An explanatory sequential mixed method design was employed, whereby a quantitative, cross-sectional survey was implemented in the case study sites, and subsequently, qualitative, semi- structured interviews were conducted, informed by and designed to explain the findings from the quantitative phase.

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