The capacities of private developers in urban climate change adaptation

The urban environment is particularly exposed to climate impacts, due to a range of factors, such as its geographical location, spatial immobility, and high population. The urban development industry relates to climate change because the built environment itself has climate impacts; the location and scale of development products influence the degree to which users are exposed to climate hazards; and climate change presents multiple challenges to which developers will likely need to adapt. However, a major policy and knowledge gap exists in the social scientific understanding of the private sector developers' capability to respond in an effective and timely way to the climate adaptation challenge. Using South East Queensland (SEQ) as a case study, this research investigated the institutional capacity of the private urban development sector to respond to climate change. This report explores findings from an online questionnaire survey, and a series of interviews and focus groups.