ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on incidents of natural disaster to explore how cities can recover and learn from the experience by adjusting systems and services to anticipate the next hazard, and to explore the implications of shocks and incremental pressures on the policy context for ongoing socio-technical transitions. It explores the policy realities of urban transitions, using a unique case of incremental pressure and rapid system shock. The research examines the governance interactions and activities behind policy responses to short-term shock (flood) and long-term pressure (drought) in Brisbane, Australia. The multi-level governance framework offers four dimensions of governance that are used as guideposts for the broad range of governance activities underlying management responses and policy change: strategic activities, tactical activities, operational activities and reflexive activities. This governance framework enables the analysis of case materials to be structured so as to capture the range of governance activities behind the policy responses.