Governance of climate change adaption and disaster risk reduction integration: strategies, policies and plans in Australian Local Governments

In Australia, governing the integration of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) into Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is becoming a pressing field of action. This governance is shaped by normative elements such as strategies, policies, and plans (SPPs), which set goals for coping with climate change-related risks. This paper investigates CCA and DRR as integrated into SPPs by Local Governments of Newcastle, Singleton, and Lake Macquarie, NSW. A content analysis of documents publicly available on City Councils’ websites has been performed. The analysis found: i) differences between urban and rural Local Governments in terms of climate change-related risks consideration; ii) a convergence of common topics and milestones for some of the SPPs; iii) the necessity to target vulnerabilities and resilience for some specific subgroups of local communities; iv) land-use and development as common topics; and, v) a required focus on drought and on the inclusion of CCA into disaster response. The paper recommends exploring governance of CCA&DRR integration at the local level in order to advance the current state of the art