Balancing Structural Conflicts Across Scales to Develop and Mobilise Adaptive Capacity

Abstract

Building on the three stages of analysis presented in Part III, this first chapter of Part IV discusses the challenges of developing and mobilising adaptive capacity across the complex spatial and temporal scales that emerged as key themes in earlier analysis. Across the spatial scale, there is a challenge in balancing guidance and certainty from higher levels of governance with flexibility of autonomous actors to respond quickly to challenges at the local scale. Furthermore, adaptation to certain stress conditions within one scale or magnitude of change was found to not necessarily imply long-term adaptability to conditions whose persistence and impacts will be more pervasive.