Final Report
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7 Application of the Climate Vulnerability Index for Shark Bay, Western Australia The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) is a rapid assessment tool custom-designed for application in World Heritage properties. This report describes outcomes from its application for the Shark Bay, Western Australia property. Vulnerabilities of the World Heritage values and attributes, and of the community associated with the property were each assessed in the highest category. Authors: Scott F. Heron1,2, Jon C. Day2, Cheryl Cowell3, Phil R. Scott4, Di Walker4,5, Jenny Shaw6 Affiliations: 1 Physics, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville Q4811, Australia 2 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville Q4811, Australia 3 Shark Bay World Heritage Property, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Western Australia, Denham WA 6537, Australia 4 Shark Bay World Heritage Advisory Committee, Denham WA 6537, Australia 5 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth WA 6009, Australia 6 Western Australian Marine Science Institution, Perth WA 6009, Australia Ownership of Intellectual property rights: Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by James Cook University; Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; Shark Bay World Heritage Advisory Committee; The University of Western Australia; and the Western Australian Marine Science Institution. Copyright: © Western Australian Marine Science Institution. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all material in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en) Legal Notice: The Western Australian Marine Science Institution advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. This information should therefore not solely be relied on when making commercial or other decisions. WAMSI and its partner organisations take no responsibility for the outcome of decisions based on information contained in this, or related, publications. Front cover image: Big Lagoon, Shark Bay (Credit: Richard Gale) Publication date: May 2020 Citation: Heron SF, Day JC, Cowell C, Scott PR, Walker D, Shaw J (2020) Application of the Climate Vulnerability Index for Shark Bay, Western Australia. Western Australian Marine Science Institution, Perth, Western Australia, 80pp. Available electronically from: www.wamsi.org.au/cvi-shark-bay ISBN: 978-0-9872761-3-1 Author Contributions: SFH and JCD led the structuring of the report. All authors contributed to the drafting of sections, and the editing and finalising of the report. Corresponding author and Institution: Scott Heron (James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland) [email protected], [email protected] Funding Sources: Funding support for this project is described in the Acknowledgements, page 45. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. APPLICATION OF THE CLIMATE VULNERABILITY INDEX FOR SHARK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... i SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background to this report ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Overview of the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) ................................................................................... 1 1.3 Why was Shark Bay chosen for a CVI workshop? ..................................................................................... 2 SECTION 2. SHARK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTY ............................................. 7 2.1 Location .................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 The World Heritage Property ................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 The Implications of World Heritage status ............................................................................................... 9 2.4 Identifying the values of the World Heritage property .......................................................................... 10 2.5 Managing the World Heritage property ................................................................................................. 14 2.6 Evaluation of current condition and trend of the World Heritage attributes ........................................ 14 SECTION 3. THE CONTEXT FOR SHARK BAY ................................................................................................ 17 3.1 Physical geography and landscape ......................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Ecology ................................................................................................................................................... 17 3.3 Economic context ................................................................................................................................... 20 3.4 Social and cultural context ..................................................................................................................... 22 SECTION 4. CLIMATE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SHARK BAY ......................................................................... 25 4.1 Current climate....................................................................................................................................... 25 4.2 Observed climate trends ........................................................................................................................ 26 4.3 Anticipated climate change .................................................................................................................... 27 SECTION 5. APPLYING THE CLIMATE VULNERABILITY INDEX (CVI) TO SHARK BAY ..................................... 31 5.1 Foundational steps ................................................................................................................................. 32 5.2 OUV Vulnerability ................................................................................................................................... 34 5.3 Community Vulnerability ....................................................................................................................... 35 5.4 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 37 SECTION 6. NEXT STEPS ............................................................................................................................. 40 6.1 Findings from the CVI process ................................................................................................................ 40 6.2 Gaps identified ....................................................................................................................................... 41 6.3 Lessons for other properties .................................................................................................................. 42 6.4 Revisiting the CVI process ...................................................................................................................... 42 6.5 Wider applications ................................................................................................................................. 42 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 45 APPENDIX 1: Statement of Outstanding Universal Value – Shark Bay, Western Australia................................. 47 APPENDIX 2: Summary list of World Heritage values – Shark Bay .................................................................... 50 APPENDIX 3: Overview of the CVI Workshops in Shark Bay and Perth ............................................................. 52 APPENDIX 4: Agenda for CVI workshops ......................................................................................................... 54 APPENDIX 5: List of participants in the CVI workshops .................................................................................... 57 APPENDIX 6: List of property values that are locally, regionally or nationally significant for Shark Bay ............. 59 APPENDIX 7: Aesthetics of the Shark Bay World Heritage property ................................................................. 61 APPENDIX 8: The climate adaptation process for Shark Bay ............................................................................ 68 APPENDIX 9: Acronyms and glossary .............................................................................................................. 70 Zuytdorp Cliffs EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Climate change has been identified as the fastest growing global threat to World Heritage. Many World Heritage properties around the world