Lessons from Implementing Interdisciplinary Approaches for Climate Change Adaptation

Adaptation to the impacts of global climate change demands interdisciplinary approaches. Rapid updating of knowledge about the rate and scale of changes and their impacts at the coast is required to fit the fast evolving and different types of impacts being observed and projected. A successful approach to adaptation involves working with those impacted, to understand their concerns, values and knowledge, alongside effective communication of hazards and risks. Approaches are being deployed in New Zealand and elsewhere that can enable decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty. We will discuss the lessons from working in inter-disciplinary teams within New Zealand and with our colleagues internationally, using such approaches. We will discuss how monitoring and communication of new knowledge about climate drivers and human responses to them, can be integrated for decision making about adaptation to climate change. New Zealand has been at the forefront of developing and experimenting with new approaches and tools for use at many scales and levels of government and the community, for making decisions under uncertain conditions. These are now embedded in national guidance.