Climate risk assessments keep missing the social side. Social Impact Assessment can fill that gap, building not just climate resilience but communities' capacity to adapt to any change.
Integrating social systems into climate adaptation is increasingly critical to building community resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change. Social impact assessment (SIA), widely adopted in the infrastructure sector in Australia, offers a pathway to do this at scale and pace, but practitioners need practical guidance that builds on existing methods. To inform a broader research project, this study explored the gaps and alignment between climate adaptation and SIA, current practice in delivering transformational outcomes, and the accessibility of the academic literature. Using grounded research methodology, abstracts from 155 academic articles were reviewed through iterative keyword searching, coding and cleaning. Four themes emerged: how climate adaptation and SIA are each interpreted and applied; the variables used to scope studies; and the methodologies and frameworks used. The literature was broad and inconsistent, making it difficult to consolidate, yet several common seminal concepts revealed foundational alignments, indicating SIA is well placed to integrate social systems into climate adaptation. Done well, this could strengthen not only climate resilience but communities' broader adaptive capacity to navigate change of any kind. Further research should validate this framework, test it against real-world SIAs from the Australian infrastructure sector, and engage practitioners to develop practical guidance.
Laura is Social Outcomes Leader for Mott MacDonald across Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, and is completing a Master of Climate Change Adaptation at Griffith University.