Dr Gavin Smith’s presentation will be based on his co-edited book Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons from Natural Hazards Planning(Glavovich & Smith 2014), which identifies lessons from natural hazard experiences to help communities plan for and adapt to climate change.
The book draws on case studies to examine diverse experiences, from severe storms to sea-level related hazards, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and tsunami, in North America, Australasia, and elsewhere. The findings constitute four imperatives: (i) Develop collaborative governance networks; (ii) build adaptive capabilities; (iii) invest in pre-event planning; and (iv) undertake adaptive actions that advance resilience and sustainability.
Dr Smith’s talk will be of value to climate change and emergency management policy-makers, scholars, students and practitioners with an interest in the lessons from natural hazards planning scholarship and experience. This can help unlock opportunities for building communities that are sustainable and resilient to climate change and natural hazards.
Dr Smith is in Australia as a guest of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. He is a keynote presenter at AFAC16, the CRC’s annual conference in Brisbane 30 August to 1 September 2016.