Flood risks are increasing and available funding is reducing, posing professionals with the need to change practices. 'Active learning' can help to develop the capacity to accept different perspectives on risk and performance and to use alternative innovatory responses. Breaking the entrapment of traditional approaches requires cultural change in the organisations and the individuals involved. Learning Alliances can help to do this. In Yorkshire (England), a common forum for learning and action in relation to flood and water management has evolved into Learning and Action Alliances (LAAs). These alliances, which are essential components of three European Union INTERREG IVB projects, have national, regional and local dimensions. Internationally, these and partner LAAs, are being utilised to engender transnational learning. Experience from the establishment and operation of these LAAs is presented and it is concluded that there is no single blueprint for an ideal LAA. Nor is their establishment and operation straightforward.
White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) are implicated in many bites on people. Subsequently, they have become a target species for shark bite management strategies. SMART drumlines allow fast responses to, and releases of, captured animals. This research shows that white sharks’ immediate physiological response to capture on SMART drumlines is minimal.
This paper demonstrates that information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners can make a significant contribution to the grand challenge of sustainability in light of global climate change. In doing so, the paper takes a novel perspective by going beyond the dominant emphasis in the Green IS literature on climate change mitigation to focus on climate change adaptation. To demonstrate how IS researchers and practitioners can engage with the grand challenge of sustainability, we report the findings of an investigation into the role of IS in climate change adaptation programmes of the government of New South Wales, Australia. Canonical action research, informed by activity theory, proved to be an appropriate methodology for this investigation by combining iterative collaborative engagement and rigorous scholarly reflection. Activity theory has previously been successfully used in IS research as a framework for inquiry and description but not for prediction. This raised questions, addressed in this study, about whether or not activity theory could be used to guide interventions and make sense of their impact. The findings reveal how activity theory provides an appropriate balance between scope and detail to accommodate the complex processes of planning and implementing climate change adaptation programmes. We conclude that while climate adaptation is complex, activity theory, specifically five dynamic dimensions for deep sense-making, can inform interventions in climate change adaptation projects. Most significantly, we demonstrate that IS experts can make a positive contribution to addressing one of the most important grand challenges of our time.
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