Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future
Whilst future air temperature thresholds have become the centrepiece of international climate negotiations, even the most ambitious target of 1.5 °C will result in significant sea-level rise and associated impacts on human populations globally. Of additional concern in Arctic regions is declining se...
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Online Access: | https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:a938233 |
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:a938233 2023-05-15T15:14:11+02:00 Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future Albert, Simon Bronen, Robin Tooler, Nixon Leon, Javier Yee, Douglas Ash, Jillian Boseto, David Grinham, Alistair 2017-11-27 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:a938233 eng eng Springer doi:10.1007/s10113-017-1256-8 issn:1436-3798 issn:1436-378X orcid:0000-0002-5947-7909 orcid:0000-0002-4201-5804 orcid:0000-0001-8313-2276 Sea-level rise Climate change Relocations Solomon Islands Alaska 2306 Global and Planetary Change Journal Article 2017 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1256-8 2020-04-07T01:54:24Z Whilst future air temperature thresholds have become the centrepiece of international climate negotiations, even the most ambitious target of 1.5 °C will result in significant sea-level rise and associated impacts on human populations globally. Of additional concern in Arctic regions is declining sea ice and warming permafrost which can increasingly expose coastal areas to erosion particularly through exposure to wave action due to storm activity. Regional variability over the past two decades provides insight into the coastal and human responses to anticipated future rates of sea-level rise under 1.5 °C scenarios. Exceeding 1.5 °C will generate sea-level rise scenarios beyond that currently experienced and substantially increase the proportion of the global population impacted. Despite these dire challenges, there has been limited analysis of how, where and why communities will relocate inland in response. Here, we present case studies of local responses to coastal erosion driven by sea-level rise and warming in remote indigenous communities of the Solomon Islands and Alaska, USA, respectively. In both the Solomon Islands and the USA, there is no national government agency that has the organisational and technical capacity and resources to facilitate a community-wide relocation. In the Solomon Islands, communities have been able to draw on flexible land tenure regimes to rapidly adapt to coastal erosion through relocations. These relocations have led to ad hoc fragmentation of communities into smaller hamlets. Government-supported relocation initiatives in both countries have been less successful in the short term due to limitations of land tenure, lacking relocation governance framework, financial support and complex planning processes. These experiences from the Solomon Islands and USA demonstrate the urgent need to create a relocation governance framework that protects people’s human rights. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Arctic Regional Environmental Change 18 8 2261 2272 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Sea-level rise Climate change Relocations Solomon Islands Alaska 2306 Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Sea-level rise Climate change Relocations Solomon Islands Alaska 2306 Global and Planetary Change Albert, Simon Bronen, Robin Tooler, Nixon Leon, Javier Yee, Douglas Ash, Jillian Boseto, David Grinham, Alistair Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
topic_facet |
Sea-level rise Climate change Relocations Solomon Islands Alaska 2306 Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Whilst future air temperature thresholds have become the centrepiece of international climate negotiations, even the most ambitious target of 1.5 °C will result in significant sea-level rise and associated impacts on human populations globally. Of additional concern in Arctic regions is declining sea ice and warming permafrost which can increasingly expose coastal areas to erosion particularly through exposure to wave action due to storm activity. Regional variability over the past two decades provides insight into the coastal and human responses to anticipated future rates of sea-level rise under 1.5 °C scenarios. Exceeding 1.5 °C will generate sea-level rise scenarios beyond that currently experienced and substantially increase the proportion of the global population impacted. Despite these dire challenges, there has been limited analysis of how, where and why communities will relocate inland in response. Here, we present case studies of local responses to coastal erosion driven by sea-level rise and warming in remote indigenous communities of the Solomon Islands and Alaska, USA, respectively. In both the Solomon Islands and the USA, there is no national government agency that has the organisational and technical capacity and resources to facilitate a community-wide relocation. In the Solomon Islands, communities have been able to draw on flexible land tenure regimes to rapidly adapt to coastal erosion through relocations. These relocations have led to ad hoc fragmentation of communities into smaller hamlets. Government-supported relocation initiatives in both countries have been less successful in the short term due to limitations of land tenure, lacking relocation governance framework, financial support and complex planning processes. These experiences from the Solomon Islands and USA demonstrate the urgent need to create a relocation governance framework that protects people’s human rights. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Albert, Simon Bronen, Robin Tooler, Nixon Leon, Javier Yee, Douglas Ash, Jillian Boseto, David Grinham, Alistair |
author_facet |
Albert, Simon Bronen, Robin Tooler, Nixon Leon, Javier Yee, Douglas Ash, Jillian Boseto, David Grinham, Alistair |
author_sort |
Albert, Simon |
title |
Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
title_short |
Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
title_full |
Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
title_fullStr |
Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
title_full_unstemmed |
Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future |
title_sort |
heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the solomon islands and alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °c future |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:a938233 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska |
op_relation |
doi:10.1007/s10113-017-1256-8 issn:1436-3798 issn:1436-378X orcid:0000-0002-5947-7909 orcid:0000-0002-4201-5804 orcid:0000-0001-8313-2276 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1256-8 |
container_title |
Regional Environmental Change |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
2261 |
op_container_end_page |
2272 |
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1766344667509555200 |