Creating resilience for businesses and communities in a climate changing world

Last year’s flooding in Brisbane, the 2009 Victorian bushfires and impacts from Cyclone Yasi are just a few examples of recent extreme events that demonstrate that Australian society today is facing increasingly diverse and costly threats. In response to the rising impacts and cost of disasters, research at UQ Business School are seeking to identify which approaches can be used to build resilience – the ability of businesses and communities to resist and respond to a variety of different adverse impacts. In particular the projected impacts of climate change, such as the expected increase in frequency and severity of weather events, mean an increased vulnerability of businesses, industries, communities and individuals to adverse impacts especially in vulnerable areas and locations with rapid population growth. While the concept of resilience has gained importance in research and practice in recent years, more needs to be done in order to properly inform and support decision-makers to increase their resilience. Decision-makers require practical tools to evaluate overall resilience of a firm, industry and/ or region and to identify potential vulnerabilities. However, the implications of climate change and the anticipated changes in trends of weather extremes, such as changes to the intensity and/or frequency of storms, floods, and droughts, have not yet been fully considered in political, economic and social decision-making. In order to prepare for a vastly more uncertain future, it will therefore be necessary to find new innovative ways of minimising impacts, maximising recovery and identify the most effective resilience strategies. This article outlines key difficulties in understanding the uncertainties about future climate change outcomes across temporal and spatial scales and seeks to provide innovative insight into what leads to business and community resilience