Climate Change Impacts and Risk Management : Improving farm resilience through adaptation in the crop-livestock zone of the Corangamite catchment in Victoria (Australia) with a Case Study of the ´Mount Hesse´ farm

Abstract

This PhD thesis focuses on the risks, challenges but also possible opportunities that climate variability and change is coming along with for the Corangamite catchment and the case study Mt Hesse, located in south-east Victoria/Australia. There has been a temperature increase of about 1°C over the last century and a precipitation decrease. This trend is expected to continue in future which means that adaptation strategies are becoming a vital concern. Adaptation aims to reduce risks for agricultural production, helps to cope with uncertainty, harness beneficial opportunities and supports business resilience. Therefore, farmers in the catchment and sectoral experts from private, research and governmental institutions have been interviewed to explore perceptions, potential constraints to adaptation and to develop a proper risk management framework for farmers in the catchment.