Typical Social Adaptation Measures in Climate Change Planning: A Tropical Region Case Study

Climate change adaptation needs to be a highly social process as it requires a systemic change in human behaviors at various scales. Planning for climate change adaptation, however, has only recently begun to explore and adopt approaches focused on building the resilience of social assets as a strategy for effecting change and adaptation. To date, partial or peripheral approaches to planning for social adaptation have been the norm. This chapter considers a social adaptation approach established in Tropical North Queensland (TNQ), a diverse Australian metaregion vulnerable to climate change impacts typical of a range of tropical countries. We (1) outline the methods used in a socially oriented approach planning applied in TNQ, (2) explore a range of social adaption measures emerging from this approach, and (3) evaluate how these measures could be applied in different tropical regions around the world. Because of the diverse nature of the TNQ region, this work provides insights into typical social adaptation measures that may emerge from such planning across the tropics.