Climate change adaptation by ports: the attitude and perception of Chinese port stakeholders
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Date
2018
Authors
He, Yile
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Abstract
It is well-known that climate change poses a severe risk to human activities and lives and the awareness is increasing rapidly since the beginning of the 21st century. Hitherto, existing research focuses on the importance of the effective development and implementation of climate change adaptation plans and strategies. As an essential transportation node of global supply chains, ports and their surrounding organizations or their stakeholders are vulnerable to the impacts posed by climate change, notably sea-level rise, and storm surge, that without appropriate measures can cause significant losses to the global economy. Thus, there is an urgent need for a better understanding of the attitudes of port stakeholders in climate adaptation strategies so as to facilitate the application of climate adaptation strategies. However, the attitude and perception of port stakeholders towards such plans and strategies remain unclear. This thesis addresses such deficiency by investigating 20 ports in China and interviewing nine Chinese port stakeholders. What it aims is to understand their attitude and perception of climate change adaptation plans and strategies and offer a better understanding of adaptation and mitigation strategies. During the investigation, we asked about the impediments and the impact of context, systems and some other factors on the implementation of adaptation strategies. The findings suggest that most of the port stakeholders, in general, aware of climate change impacts and agree that some measures are necessary. Nevertheless, inadequate knowledge and policy support remain major barriers for them to implement climate change adaptation plans and strategies effectively. Further, other factors affecting respondents' attitude are partly revealed. This study offers an overview of the attitude of port stakeholders in China toward adaptation strategies. In addition, it can be considered as a model for further study about the perception of other economic sectors toward the impacts posed by climate change and adaptation strategies.
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Keywords
Climate change, Port, China, Attitude, Organizational perspective