Social capital as a policy catalyst: Enhancing municipal investment in climate risk reduction and adaptation

IF 9.1 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change Pub Date : 2025-07-21 DOI:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.103041

Pablo Neudörfer , Patricio Valdivieso

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Does social capital guide municipalities toward improved investment in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation? This article investigates whether communities with high vulnerability to climate change risks and strong social capital traits are more likely to invest in preparedness for climate change disasters. We leverage the exogenous variation of local downpours in Chile from 2009 to 2018 as a catalyst for increased awareness to examine the effects of social capital on public investment in adaptation. Our findings reveal that linking and bridging social capital levels affect preparedness as communities experience more downpours, while bonding social capital levels have no effect. These results suggest that linking and bridging could steer policymakers toward increased investment, contributing to more resilient and sustainable communities in the face of climate change. Furthermore, social capital may have the potential to shift policymakers’ focus from popular short-term disaster relief spending to long-term preparedness investments.

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社会资本作为政策催化剂：加强市政在减少和适应气候风险方面的投资

社会资本是否引导市政当局改善对减少灾害风险和适应气候变化的投资？本文调查了气候变化风险高脆弱性和社会资本特征强的社区是否更有可能投资于气候变化灾害的准备工作。我们利用2009年至2018年智利当地降雨的外生变化作为催化剂，提高人们对社会资本对适应公共投资的影响的认识。我们的研究结果表明，当社区经历更多的暴雨时，连接和桥接社会资本水平会影响准备工作，而连接社会资本水平则没有影响。这些结果表明，联系和衔接可以引导政策制定者增加投资，有助于在气候变化面前建立更具弹性和可持续性的社区。此外，社会资本可能有潜力将决策者的重点从流行的短期救灾支出转向长期备灾投资。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Global Environmental Change 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

18.20

自引率

2.20%

发文量

146

审稿时长

12 months

期刊介绍： Global Environmental Change is a prestigious international journal that publishes articles of high quality, both theoretically and empirically rigorous. The journal aims to contribute to the understanding of global environmental change from the perspectives of human and policy dimensions. Specifically, it considers global environmental change as the result of processes occurring at the local level, but with wide-ranging impacts on various spatial, temporal, and socio-political scales. In terms of content, the journal seeks articles with a strong social science component. This includes research that examines the societal drivers and consequences of environmental change, as well as social and policy processes that aim to address these challenges. While the journal covers a broad range of topics, including biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate, coasts, food systems, land use and land cover, oceans, urban areas, and water resources, it also welcomes contributions that investigate the drivers, consequences, and management of other areas affected by environmental change. Overall, Global Environmental Change encourages research that deepens our understanding of the complex interactions between human activities and the environment, with the goal of informing policy and decision-making.