Evaluating regional vulnerability to climate change: purposes and methods

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Climate Change, 2(3):462-474

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.116· OSTI ID:1013290

Malone, Elizabeth L; Engle, Nathan L

As the emphasis in climate change research, international negotiations, and developing-country activities has shifted from mitigation to adaptation, vulnerability has emerged as a bridge between impacts on one side and the need for adaptive changes on the other. Still, the term vulnerability remains abstract, its meaning changing with the scale, focus, and purpose of each assessment. Understanding regional vulnerability has advanced over the past several decades, with studies using a combination of indicators, case studies and analogues, stakeholder-driven processes, and scenario-building methodologies. As regions become increasingly relevant scales of inquiry for bridging the aggregate and local, for every analysis, it is perhaps most appropriate to ask three “what” questions: “What/who is vulnerable?,” “What is vulnerability?,” and “Vulnerable to what?” The answers to these questions will yield different definitions of vulnerability as well as different methods for assessing it.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1013290
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-79147
• Journal Information: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Climate Change, 2(3):462-474, Journal Name: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Climate Change, 2(3):462-474 Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
MITIGATION
VULNERABILITY
climate change
indicators research
scenarios
stakeholder involvement
vulnerability