Sense of community and adaptive capacity: Insights from the 2019/2020 Australian 'Black Summer' bushfires

The escalating threat of climate-related disasters is challenging vulnerable communities to adapt across the world. This study examined the relationship between people's sense of community (as assessed by perceived cohesion and identification) and their perceptions of adaptive capacity, along with the role that their willingness to include all stakeholders may play in moderating this relationship. Geo-targeted surveys were used to collect data from 363 participants affected by the 2019/2020 'Black Summer' Bushfires in Australia. We found that increased community cohesion and identification were linked to greater perceived adaptive capacity, along with evidence that these relationships may depend upon attitudes towards accommodating diverse stakeholder interests, such that more positive attitudes strengthened some of these associations while less positive attitudes attenuated them. These findings highlight the fundamental social underpinnings of collective adaptative capacity for communities responding to the threat of future climate-related disasters.