Place meanings and climate change vulnerability: Nature-based recreation and tourism community leaders contemplate change

Abstract

Climate change adaptation has largely failed to address the importance of changing place meanings in nature based-recreation and tourism (NRT) communities. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews and three focus groups were conducted with community leaders (e.g., residents that were tourism professionals, natural resource managers, and local elected officials) on the “North Shore” of Lake Superior in Minnesota, USA. These qualitative data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Perceptions of local effects of climate change diverged: stakeholders felt vulnerable, had perceptions of resilience or lacked understanding of impacts. Climate change threatens to cause reduced place satisfaction (vulnerability) and is determined by the level of place dependence (exposure) and the degree of place identity (sensitivity) in the NRT community. This study proposes a theoretical model integrating place concepts and climate change vulnerability that addresses the overlooked role of place meanings and identity in climate change adaptation.