Tim Smith

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of the Sunshine Coast

Innovation is championed to enable transformation towards social-ecological resilience in coastal communities. Yet, innovation in coastal areas is not well understood with limited research concerning the nature of innovations and determinants of success. Analysis of interviews with 68 coastal and community key informants in Australia's most rapidly...

Projected population growth and climate change paint an increasingly bleak picture for many coastal communities and their already threatened ecosystems. Yet, coastal managers and residents provide expressions of hope. In this short communication we reflect on the findings of a four-year research project examining coastal governance in rapidly growi...

Poetic inquiry is used to highlight contrasting lived experiences of vulnerability and worsening socio‐ecological outcomes among Australia's fastest growing coastal communities. Our approach interweaves multiple participant voices across local and national scales to juxtapose the contrasts of inequality, enmesh social and ecological experiences, an...

Ocean & Coastal Management (OCMA) has significantly contributed to international ocean and coastal management, policy-making, governance, and other related research fields. This article highlights the contributions OCMA has made in these areas by summarizing the trends in 3782 articles published from 1992 to 2021. Using bibliometric and knowledge g...

Oceans and coasts provide important ecosystem, livelihood, and cultural values to humans and the planet but face current and future compounding threats from anthropogenic activities associated with expanding populations and their use of and reliance on these environments. To respond to and mitigate these threats, there is a need to first systematic...

The socioeconomics of the Anthropocene is exposing coastal regions to multiple pressures, including climate change hazards, resource degradation, urban development and inequality. Tourism is often raised as either a panacea to, or exacerbator of, such threats to ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods. To better understand the impacts of tourism on...

Enhancing the resilience of complex social‐ecological systems (SES) to climate change requires transformative changes. Yet, there are knowledge gaps on how best to achieve transformation. In this study, we present an approach for assessing governance performance in SES and identifying leverage points to ultimately enhance climate resilience. The ap...

Human development seeks to enlarge freedoms by building capacity and is integral to achieving sustainable development, particularly in the era of the Anthropocene. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of capacity building is limited. First-generation adaptive capacity emphasizes a deficit model. Second-generation adaptive capacity focuses on m...

Critical infrastructure is a foundational component of a functional society and is under threat from the impacts of climate change. To ensure communities are not left without fundamental supplies and services, the adaptation of critical infrastructure to climate change needs to be understood holistically. This paper uses a scoping literature review...

Global frameworks established in 2015 – including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement – provide a comprehensive foundation for states to improve disaster risk management. However, the degree to which these frameworks are driving necessary changes to public policies a...

Disaster risk reduction is central to managing the risks of climate change at global, national, and sub-national levels. The operationalization of disaster risk reduction, however, has been met with challenges that have restricted successful policy implementation. Drawing from document analyses and Delphi studies with government practitioners, this...

Households play an important role in reducing coastal vulnerability through individual and collective action. Information provision is a key strategy adopted by governments to support household adaptation. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of the different types of information and their influence on coastal household response....

Although adaptive management has been advocated for dealing with the complexity and dynamics of social-ecological systems for more than 40 years, successful outcomes in practice have been limited. Among the efforts to overcome this implementation gap, there has been a growing interest in understanding the role of law in adaptive management. In this...

How we define our problems determines the solutions; yet problem framing within coastal management is rarely critiqued. Consequently, opportunities for comprehensive policy response, vital in addressing the complex challenges impacting the coast, are missed. To address this gap, we develop and apply coastal sustainability paradigms to critique 48 i...

Global frameworks established in 2015 – including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement – provide a comprehensive foundation for states to improve disaster risk management. However, the degree to which these frameworks are driving necessary changes to public policies a...

The science-society contract is broken. The climate is changing. Science demonstrates why this is occurring, that it is getting worse, the implications for human well-being and social-ecological systems, and substantiates action. Governments agree that the science is settled. The tragedy of climate change science is that at the same time as compell...

Crisis management planning and response can be improved by regional governments and organisations learning from one another. Specifically, comparative learning may be a benefit when groups understand the perceived effectiveness of various regional approaches when responding to different types of hazards. This article presents findings from a compar...

The need for Asia-Pacific coastal cities to adapt effectively and sustainably to accelerating (relative) sea-level rise is growing. If such adaptation does not occur in a timely manner, then it could result in socio-economic problems that will reverberate throughout the region. Using examples of coastal Asia-Pacific cities that are characterised by...

Lack of public support for coastal adaptation can present significant barriers for implementation. In response, policy makers and academics are seeking strategies to build public support for coastal adaptation, which requires a deeper understanding of peoples’ preferences for coastal adaptation and what motives those preferences. Here, we conduct a...

Australians hold a deep affinity for our oceans and coasts. These areas are beautiful, diverse, complex places that work in synchronicity with each other. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have known this for thousands of years, speaking of Land and Sea Country as an interconnected whole, rather than as separate ecosystems. This is what...

The condition of coastal areas around the world continues to decline despite over 50 years of integrated coastal management efforts. A myriad of institutional instruments such as legislation, policies and plans influence decisions made in the coastal zone. Despite this, there is limited comprehensive analysis of the degree to which institutional ar...

Adaptive management has long been promulgated as an appropriate approach to address the complexity and dynamics of coastal social-ecological systems. However, examples of successful implementation of this approach are still scarce. Law may be a factor hindering adaptive management, particularly when legal provisions are too rigid to enable change....

As disaster risks from floods and droughts continue to increase and affect communities, the relationship between disaster risk and human development has become increasingly important. Despite international attempts to mobilize governments and relevant stakeholders to address disaster risk more holistically, disaster risk reduction and human develop...

As climate change and other socioeconomic stressors continue to impact coastal social-ecological systems, we need to deepen our knowledge of the capacity to adapt. Global environmental change research has generated several useful concepts and frameworks for understanding and assessing adaptive capacity to climate change impacts, but our ability to...

Adaptive management has been advocated as an appropriate approach for the management of social-ecological systems, although its implementation has proven to be a challenge. Legal systems can hinder or facilitate adaptive management. Focusing on legal arrangements, this article explores how adaptive management can be better operationalised in the co...

Increasing intensity and frequency of climate-related disasters such as floods and droughts challenge existing governance models of disaster risk reduction. This paper systematically reviews 147 articles on pre-disaster planning and preparedness for floods and droughts in developed countries. The results show: 1) the formal adoption of an integrate...

This paper explores how Australia's Indigenous peoples understand and respond to climate change impacts on their traditional land and seas. Our results show that: (i) Indigenous peoples are observing modifications to their country due to climate change, and are doing so in both ancient and colonial time scales; (ii) the ways that climate change ter...

Small-scale coastal fisheries (SSCF) in the Western region of Ghana are affected by a combination of climate and non-climate stressors. Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to these stressors because of their proximity to the sea and high dependence on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods. A better understanding of how fishing com...

Adaptive management has been considered a valuable approach for managing social-ecological systems involving high levels of complexity and uncertainty. However, many obstacles still hamper its implementation. Law is often seen as a barrier for moving adaptive management beyond theory, although there has been no synthesis on the challenges of legal...

Research that projects biophysical changes under climate change is more advanced than research that projects socio-economic changes. There is a need in adaptation planning for informed socio-economic projections as well as analysis of how these changes may exacerbate or reduce vulnerability. Our focus in this paper is on the delivery of time-sensit...

The processes by which adaptive capacity is mobilised in response to multiple stressors are yet to be fully understood. This study addresses this pressing research gap by drawing on the capitals framework and empirical data from small-scale coastal fisheries in the Western Region of Ghana. It employs an ethnographic approach, based on multiple sour...

A convoluted network of different water governance systems exists around the world. Collectively, these systems provide insight into how to build sustainable regimes of water use and management. We argue that the challenge is not tomake the systemless convoluted, but rather to support positive and promising trends in governance, creating a vision f...

Flooding is routinely among the most disastrous annual events worldwide with extensive impacts on human wellbeing, economies and ecosystems. Thus, how decisions are made about floods (i.e. flood governance) is extremely important and evidence shows that it is changing, with non-governmental actors (civil society and the private sector) becoming inv...

This paper explores how social networks and bonds within and across organisations shape disaster operations and strategies. Local government disaster training exercises serve as a window through which to view these relations, and ‘social capital’ is used as an analytic for making sense of the human relations at the core of disaster management opera...

Stresses on water resources are considerable and will intensify in the future due to climatic and non-climatic drivers. The emerging shift from science-based command and control ‘old’ water management approach to a dynamic and integrative systems view of water—a ‘new’ water management approach—was explored using the concept of capacity, operational...

Small-scale coastal fisheries are exposed to many stressors, such as poor governance, lack of alternative employment , overfishing and diseases. Stressors, in this context, constitute environmental and socioeconomic changes or events at local, national or global levels making the fisheries sector or fishers vulnerable. Climate change is expected to...

Available from Springer Nature Sharing at: http://rdcu.be/nsZ3 This paper presents empirical data on household perceptions of capability to adapt to climate hazards and associated capacity needs. Households play an important role in responding to the impact of a changing climate by creating a functional link between individual and community respon...

For a generation, governments around the world have been committed to sustainable development as a policy goal. This has been supported by an array of new policies ranging from international agreements, to national strategies, environmental laws at many levels of government, regional programs, and local plans. Despite these efforts, decades of scie...

Despite huge differences in population, household income and development levels, Australia and Brazil have some temporal convergences in their water governance systems. Over the last 20 years, both countries have significantly reformed their water policies and practices by introducing a legal foundation for more integrated and participatory catchme...

n Australia, shared responsibility is a concept advocated to promote collective climate change adaptation by multiple actors and institutions. However, a shared response is often promoted in the absence of information regarding actions currently taken; in particular, there is limited knowledge regarding action occurring at the household scale. To a...

In the context of accelerated global change, the concept of resilience, with its roots in ecological theory and complex adaptive systems, has emerged as the favoured framework for understanding and responding to the dynamics of change. Its transfer from ecological to social contexts, however, has led to the concept being interpreted in multiple way...

Assessing socio-economic vulnerability to climate change impacts to support regional decision-making is conceptually and practically challenging. We report on research that tested a rapid assessment approach of socio-economic vulnerability in Australia's natural resource management regions. The approach focuses on regionally important economic sect...

This article systematically reviews and synthesises academic, peer-reviewed literature to assess the state of knowledge concerning socio-economic vulnerability to climate change impacts and environmental hazards in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. It focuses upon empirical research that identifies socio-economic factors associated with vu...

Water fulfills multiple functions and is instilled with numerous meanings: it is concurrently an economic input, an aesthetic reference, a religious symbol, a public good, a fundamental resource for public health, and a biophysical need for humans and ecosystems. Hence, water has multiple ontologies embedded within diverse social, cultural, spiritu...

The facilitation of Education for Sustainability (EfS) by Decentralized Global Networks (DGNs) is consistent with the dynamic and increasingly complex nature of sustainability issues, and is often motivated by inter-governmental policy objectives that link sustainability learning with sustainable development. The use of DGNs for EfS is now well est...

There is limited knowledge of risk perceptions in coastal communities despite their vulnerability to a range of risks including the impacts of climate change. A survey of 400 households in two Australian coastal communities, combined with semi-structured interviews, provides insight into household perceptions of the relative importance of climatic...

Social learning can be a vital tool in assisting communities to adapt to change. Local governments can be a conduit between the communities they serve and the policy that they are trying to implement. Social learning in this context can be an iterative, often organic process. Based on a case study of coastal planning in South Australia, Australia,...

Over 85% of Australia’s population resides within 50 kilometres of the coastline. Population projections indicate that the trend of coastal urbanisation is likely to continue, placing significant pressure on infrastructure, services, and ecological systems. The impacts on coastal communities from urbanisation will be exacerbated by the effects of c...

Increasing evidence highlights the importance of context-specific understanding of the impacts of climate change and the need to move beyond generalized assumptions regarding the nature and utility of adaptive capacity in facilitating adaptation. The household level of impact and response is an under-researched context, despite influential decision...

Cambodia has approached climate change from the perspective of it being an environmental issue and placed an emphasis on mitigation as part of being a responsible global citizen. However, the societal implications of climate change, while recognised, are yet to be considered adequately. A thorough understanding of climate change and its implication...

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Working across scales presents barriers and opportunities to Education for Sustainability (EfS) programmes. It changes the way these programmes are implemented and can provide the tools for addressing systemic problems that have so far eluded localized approaches to sustainability learning. In particular, issues of scale affect the implementation o...

he contribution of the informal community sector to the development of collective response strategies to socioecological change is not well researched. In this article, we examine the role of community opinion leaders in developing and mobilising stocks of adaptive capacity. In so doing, we reveal a largely unexplored mechanism for building on late...

The Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast has prepared this report for the Climate Change Adaptation for Natural Resource Management in East Coast Australia project funded through the Commonwealth Government's Natural Resource Management Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Grants Program. The report outli...

The effectiveness of various adaptation options is dependent on the capacity to plan, design and implement them. Understanding the determinants of adaptive capacity is, therefore, crucial for effective responses to climate change. This paper offers an assessment of adaptive capacity across a range of sectors in South East Queensland, Australia. The...

There is growing recognition that regionally scaled responses will be pivotal in adapting to climate change (e.g. Kirshen et al. 2008; Reyer et al. 2012). This recognition is echoed in South East Queensland (SEQ), where rapid population growth and coastal urban centres have made it one of Australia’s most vulnerable regions and a focus for climate...

The horticultural sector contributed 43% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in Hawkesbury-Nepean in 2010-11.  The sector employed 0.65% of the labour force or 46.5% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include 1) its location in areas...

The grazing sector contributed 49% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in Hunter-Central Rivers in 2010-11.  The sector employed 0.65% of the labour force or 54.8% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include 1) its location in areas c...

The grazing sector contributed 67% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in Fitzroy in 2010-11.  The sector employed 3.2% of the labour force or 69.2% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include relatively low levels of socio-economic d...

The grazing sector contributed 50% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in Northern Rivers in 2010-11.  The grazing sector employed 2.2% of the labour force or 54.8% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the grazing sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include 1) relatively low...

The horticultural sector contributed 49% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in Burnett-Mary in 2010-11.  The sector employed 2.3% of the labour force or 36.7% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include 1) its location in areas class...

The horticultural sector contributed 54% of the gross value of agricultural commodities in South East Queensland in 2010-11.  The sector employed 0.3% of the labour force or 46.3% of the agricultural workforce.  Characteristics of the sector that potentially decrease its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change include 1) its location in ar...

More than one-third (37%) of Queensland's horticultural workforce lived in South East Queensland in 2011.  29% of the gross value of Queensland's horticultural production occurred in the region (2010-11). Potential Vulnerability  The horticultural sectors in the Lockyer Valley and the area between Caboolture and Beerwah are characterised by high...

13% of New South Wales' grazing sector workforce lived in the Northern Rivers region in 2011. When the beef cattle workforce is considered separately, 25% of the New South Wales' beef cattle workforce lived in the region.  12% of the gross value of New South Wales' production of grazing commodities occurred in the region (2010-11). When the gross...

This commentary reports an assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to the impacts of climate change focusing upon the horticultural sector in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Natural Resource Management (NRM) Region. The agricultural focus of the vulnerability assessment was guided by the premise that economic sectors and populations which are more depende...

This commentary reports an assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to the impacts of climate change focusing upon the grazing sector in the Fitzroy Natural Resource Management (NRM) Region. The agricultural focus of the vulnerability assessment was guided by the premise that economic sectors and populations which are more dependent upon natural...

8% of New South Wales' grazing sector workforce lived in the Hunter-Central Rivers region in 2011. When the beef cattle workforce is considered separately, 14% of the New South Wales' beef cattle workforce lived in the region.  8% of the gross value of New South Wales' production of grazing commodities occurred in the region (2010-11). When the gr...

Conventional systems of government have not been very successful in resolving coastal management problems. This lack of progress is partially attributable to inadequate representation in governance processes of the variety of knowledges present on the coast. In particular there has been a struggle to engage effectively with climate science and its...

This paper synthesizes key themes relating to effective coastal governance at the local government scale. The themes are expanded in each of the six papers that comprise the special issue and represent discussion points raised at the Australian Coastal Councils Conference held in 2012. The themes explored in this special issue include: (i) Developi...

Biofuels are evolving in complex systems of interrelating environmental, economic and social issues. For this reason a number of sustainability criteria covering these issues have been developed. However, there has been little effort given to the development of a mechanism to evaluate compliance of biofuel systems with the sustainability criteria a...

This paper presents the findings of research into climate change concerns and pro-environmental practices of households in two large urban regions of Australia. It builds on concerns regarding the ability of certain households, groups and communities to successfully adopt pro-environmental practices including the use of green technologies and other...

The nature of marine systems and the multiple stakeholders directly (and indirectly) exploiting marine ecosystem services demands a stewardship and co-management approach to conserving marine resources. At the heart of co-management and stewardship is co-learning. It is in management’s interest to determine the optimal approach to conserving biodiv...

Many coastal areas throughout the world are at risk from sea level rise and the increased intensity of extreme events such as storm surge and flooding. Simultaneously, many areas are also experiencing significant socio-economic challenges associated with rural-urban transitions, population growth, and increased consumption resulting from improving...

The Great Barrier Reef is projected to change substantially over the next 50 years due to the impacts of climate change. These impacts are likely to have severe repercussions for the communities and industries that depend on resources and services provided by the marine ecosystem. Understanding ways to increase community resilience to the impacts o...

Adaptation is a key feature of sustainable social–ecological systems. As societies traverse various temporal and spatial scales, they are exposed to differing contexts and precursors for adaptation. A cursory view of the response to these differing contexts and precursors suggests the particular ability of persistent societies to adapt to changing...

This paper explores how the history–futures interface can inform a set of concrete adaptation options to climate change for stakeholders in South East Queensland, Australia. It is based on research undertaken as part of the Commonwealth funded South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative (SEQ-CARI) that profiled 33 historical case s...

The effectiveness of climate change responses is influenced by the adaptive capacity of communities within regions over spatial and temporal scales. While climate change projections are commonly used to set policy and management responses, they are not always coupled with socio-economic projections over the same time periods. This article explores...

The Great Barrier Reef is projected to change substantially over the next 50 years due to the impacts of climate change. These impacts are likely to have severe repercussions for the communities and industries that depend on resources and services provided by the marine ecosystem. Understanding ways to increase community resilience to the impacts o...

The coastal zone has multiple institutions, actors and issues. It is also under pressure from climate change and social change. Science is often translated into policy so that multiple pressures are managed in an ad hoc and uncoordinated manner. We argue that in order to ensure science gets disseminated and used in implementation of policy in pract...