Resilient futures of a small island: A participatory approach in Tenerife (Canary Islands) to address climate change

Evaluation of the Tourism Climate Index in the Canary Islands

In this study, we performed a diagnostic and evolutive analysis of the bioclimatology of the Canary Islands, an Atlantic archipelago where the climate itself is a main feature promoting tourism. Among all the tourist-climate indices described in the literature, we evaluated the most widely used, which is the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) proposed by Mieczkowski (1985). Monthly mean TCI time series were calculated using meteorological data from the Spanish State Meteorological Agency database and the European Climate Assessment and Dataset. Our results show TCI values greater than 50 during almost every month in the period 1950–2018, with mean values over the entire time series between 70 and 80. According to the TCI classification scheme, these values correspond to a very good thermal comfort along all of the period. Our results also point to spring as the season with the best TCI, with maximum values around 80 for this index in April—excellent according to the TCI classification. However, we did not find a correlation between inbound arrivals and the TCI index, which might point to a lack of information available to tourists. This opens an opportunity for policymakers and tour operators to better publicize the best seasons for holidays in the islands.

Measuring Small Island Disaster Resilience Towards Sustainable Coastal and Fisheries Tourism: The Case of Guimaras, Philippines

Small islands have unique environmental characteristics that make them prone or vulnerable to natural and human-induced hazards. The ability of a community to measure and assess its own characteristics (i.e., connectedness, risk and vulnerability, procedures on disaster planning, response and recovery, and available resources) contributes to the improvement of its capacity to better deal with, survive, and recover from disasters. Thus, we undertook this study to measure the resilience of a small island community using a tool developed by the Torrens Resilience Institute. We conducted a survey among 37 local government officials and 192 local community residents in the Island Province of Guimaras from August to December 2018 using a structured questionnaire following a simple random sampling method. Our results show that Guimaras is facing various natural and anthropogenic hazards. However, local officials and community residents agreed that Guimaras is in the "Going Well Zone" (i.e., the island community is likely to be extremely resilient to any disaster) and that there is no significant difference (t-test, α = 0.05) in their ratings on disaster preparedness. As sun, sand, and sea tourism is a growing industry worldwide, the assessment that small island tourist destinations such as Guimaras is a resilient community would have positive impacts on the tourism industry, possibility leading to the sustainable development of coastal communities with tourism as a major source of supplemental or alternative livelihoods while reducing pressure on overexploited fish stocks.

A comparative analysis to depict underlying attributes that might determine successful implementation of local adaptation plans

Current trends in climate change indicate that the impact on the most vulnerable systems will increase. Urban areas, which concentrate population, economic activity and infrastructures, are sometimes at high-risk locations. Yet they are to be considered as vulnerable systems in need of harmonized structures supporting their efforts towards mitigating climate effects and/or adapting their territories to them. One current structure is the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM) initiative, tackling in a global and harmonized way local adaptation to climate change. Do CoM cities that developed acceptable climate change adaptation plans have similar characteristics? It is still unclear which might be the drivers or key attributes potentially leading to successful planning within the initiative. In this paper, we explore attributes of the first 51 cities that have submitted their adaptation plans to CoM, in order to identify common elements among accepted plans. Therefore, our hypothesis is that there must be attributes determining the acceptance of adaptation plans. In order to do so, the cities were classified as compliant and non-compliant with the CoM principles. Fisher's and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were applied to identify attributes that are statistically different between both groups. Results show that the engagement of multiple stakeholders and citizens, particularly at the local level, might significantly facilitate the acceptance of adaptation plans in the initiative. We also found that the benefits of stakeholder and citizen engagement could be greater in small municipalities because citizens and stakeholders have more opportunities to participate.

Group discussions on how to implement a participatory process in climate adaptation planning: a case study in Malaysia

The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are increasing all around the world, due to climate change. Climate adaptation strategies are therefore needed, since mitigation strategies alone are not sufficient to avoid serious impacts of climate change. However, adaptation to climate change is not straightforward, as it is highly influenced by diverse and conflicting interests as well as epistemological (or scientific) uncertainties. Therefore, a minimum requirement for its success is the active participation of stakeholders and citizens in the adaptation policy cycle. This paper presents a case study on a participatory process involving civil servants from different municipalities in Malaysia, in Southeast Asia, with a view to considering the optimal level of engagement that is required for climate adaptation planning. The exercise consisted of a Focus Group session, where participants were asked to discuss the level of stakeholder and citizen participation that should be adopted within the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy initiative. Contrary to authors' expectations, the participants tended to suggest medium to high levels of participation in the planning process. During the dialogues, a walking activity through the city, aimed at identifying hotspots of climate risks and defined as "safety walks", was one of the ideas proposed as a high-potential participatory method, spreading in the adaptation framework. Safety walks could complement climate modelling and enhance the robustness of climate risk assessments.

An institutional analysis to address climate change adaptation in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Heat waves and Saharan dust outbreaks have been acquiring more frequency and intensity in the Canary Islands during the last decades. Both climatic hazards are known to produce impacts on human health such as mortality (due to heat waves) and morbidity (due to dusty weather). This work addresses possible climate adaptation policies in Tenerife assuming the increasing impact of heat waves and Saharan dust outbreaks in the island under a climate change scenario. It explores the institutional setting of climate change adaptation planning in Tenerife and evaluates the statu quo of adaptation planning in the island through the engagement of key social actors. An historical review of the local and regional press articles and legislation, an in-depth round of interviews, together with questionnaires to the main social actors allows framing the social and political context in which climate change adaptation in Tenerife is embedded. Key social actors were engaged, including international organisations, atmospheric research centres, local Universities, regional and insular governments, trade unions, and environmental NGOs, among others. The main obstacles mentioned by the social actors that hinder the development of an effective climate adaptation policy address scientific knowledge, data collection and policy making, focusing on the uncertainty of climate models, the lack of epidemiological data and contrasting opinions regarding the existing climate adaptation policies. Public participation, mainstreaming of climate policies and an integrated approach between mitigation and adaptation plans were identified as key policy issues. The outcomes of this study could be meaningful for climate adaptation initiatives at local or regional level, such as the Global Covenant of Mayors, that intend to promote climate resilience through the setup of climate adaptation strategies and plans at municipality level.