From small steps to radical change

Much of adaptation is facilitating or creating small changes to existing practices, societal norms and institutions. These are seen as incremental, ‘no regrets’ or safe options that are not too disruptive to societies or economies. 

In some places, and at some times, these incremental changes are no longer sufficient. The vulnerabilities and risks created by climate change may be so large that they can be addressed only through reorganization of vulnerable systems or by changing their locations. Such fundamental change is termed transformational adaptation.

What is transformational adaptation?

There are many definitions of transformational adaptation, but they tend to agree that it involves a paradigm shift: a system-wide change with a focus on the long term that embraces uncertainty and is underpinned by sophisticated learning practices. The outcomes of the transformation are often not predictable.

Figure 1 aims to describe the framework of diverse and coevolving social-ecological systems within which transformation (and other adaptive actions) takes place (Pelling et al. 2015). Within this framework, transformational adaptation consists of a range of interacting and contributory activities.  It is generally thought that, for effective transformation to take place, all parts of the system need to change.

A recent report from the UK Climate Impacts Programme describes the capacities needed for transformation to be:

“the capacity for systemic inquiry, the capacity to cultivate and embrace uncertainty, to lead courageously, to facilitate and effectively participate in intermediation and, crucially, collective effort to facilitate a cultural shift towards honest dialogue and learning from practice.” (Lonsdale et al. 2015)

Where and how does transformation occur?

Transformation is really about a ‘brave new system’ and so tends to occur across scales simultaneously and requires changes in governance, economies and technological systems.  Therefore it really requires being organised and driven at state or national or international scales. These conditions necessitate political courage and foresight.

Transformation is a matter of timing.  Policy windows open at particular times and significant change can occur when problems, solutions and political agendas all coincide so that change does actually take place. All types of disasters have the potential to trigger effective transformation (see examples in Box 1 and Box 2). However, hasty and large-scale response to a disaster, if inadequately planned and poorly executed, can lead to a maladaptative response.

Examples of transformation

Two examples of successful transformation are outlined in Box 1 and Box 2. Both followed disastrous extreme events that caused extensive loss of life, meaning that both political will and community support were in place for transformative action.  The timescales are of interest While the Grantham relocation took place very rapidly after the Queensland flood event (it may be argued that speed facilitated its success as delay might have allowed communal memory of the event to fade), the Thames Barrier and Delta Works took at least 30 years to bring to fruition.

CoastAdapt contains a case study of planned transformative action – the relocation of the Choiseul Bay Township, Solomon Islands, in response to fears over the risks from sea-level rise.