What is the Goal? Framing the Climate Change Adaptation Question through a Problem-Oriented Approach

Abstract

A problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approach was employed at Alpine Shire, in northeast Victoria, Australia, to explore its tourism sector?s contextual vulnerability and adaptability to stressors that include but are not limited to climatic change. Using a policy sciences approach, the objective was to identify factors that influence existing vulnerabilities and that might consequently act as barriers to effective adaptation. To do this, a particular focus was placed on identifying the underlying values embedded in social and decision processes and their role in shaping preferred adaptation outcomes. Analyses of social processes suggest that many threats, including the effects climate change, compete for the resources, strategy, and direction of local tourism management bodies. Many complex and interacting factors define the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the shire?s tourism sector to the challenges of global change, including local socioeconomic issues as well as exposure to external factors of macroscale. These issues represent more immediate concerns than future climate change scenarios, revealing an approximation of the common interest in working toward adaptation and sustainability.