ABSTRACT

Climate change will affect communities in diverse and differentiated ways, so adaptation approaches must strive to address social justice in order to reduce inequality. This paper applies a social justice framework to examine planning for sea level rise in a densely populated coastal settlement in eastern Australia. The Lake Macquarie area is highly vulnerable to sea level rise with local adaptation planning already underway. An in-depth case study is presented that draws upon 19 interviews with key informants and householders and a structured document and media analysis from 12 newspapers. This qualitative data was analysed to identify: the range of understandings of what is just in planning for sea level rise; and key factors that influence perceptions of justice in planned retreat scenarios. The study concludes that there is a need for guiding principles in decision-making that explicitly address social justice in order to realise more equitable outcomes.

摘要

气候变化将以多种多样的方式影响社区，因此，适应方法必须努力解决社会正义，以减少不平等现象。本文采用社会正义框架来检查澳大利亚东部人口稠密的沿海居民点海平面上升的计划。麦格理湖地区极易受到海平面上升的影响，当地的适应计划已经在进行中。提出了一个深入的案例研究，该案例研究借鉴了19位主要信息提供者和住户的访谈，以及来自12家报纸的结构化文档和媒体分析。对这些定性数据进行了分析，以确定：对计划中的海平面上升的理解范围；以及在计划的撤退方案中影响对正义感的关键因素。