Abstract
Reviewing both conceptual and empirical studies on climate vulnerability and adaptation assessment, this paper offers an analytical framework to help better understand how context-specific adaptation strategies could be developed. The framework systematically assembles the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and the Vulnerability Assessment frameworks to develop its structural and analytical components. The resulting five-step approach involves: (i) identification of context along with understanding what aspect of vulnerability need to be studied; (ii) assessment of livelihood exposure to climate impacts involving both community perspectives and meteorological data-based climate forecasts; (iii) characterization of available capital asset usages to help buffer climate sensitivity; (iv) analysis of formal and informal institutional impetus to enhance adaptive capacity; and (v) evaluation of gaps between context-specific vulnerability and institutional and policy responses to avoid maladaptive trajectories. Drawing on published research and policy documentation, we apply the framework to the livelihood systems operating in the northeastern floodplain community of Bangladesh to demonstrate the utility of the approach and then discuss its potential to inform adaptation strategies.
Highlights
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate vulnerability is defined as “ . . . the degree to which geophysical, biological and socio-economic systems are susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse impacts of climate change” [1]
The IPCC Working Group II Fifth Assessment Report noted that different regions are responding to the impacts of climate change through climate-sensitive decision-making in diverse ways [5]
The analytical variables associated with the ‘context specification’ component have been derived from the Vulnerability Assessment framework, while the analytical variables used for the remaining four components are derived from the SRL framework
Summary
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate vulnerability is defined as “ . . . the degree to which geophysical, biological and socio-economic systems are susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse impacts of climate change” [1]. The IPCC Working Group II Fifth Assessment Report noted that different regions are responding to the impacts of climate change through climate-sensitive decision-making in diverse ways [5] This reflects the growing understanding of climate uncertainties, the types of resources available for different actions and the socio-political dynamics in different contexts [2,6]. There is, a need to further understand the potential for public policy institutions to deliver more localized approaches to enhancing livelihood sustainability in the face of climate change impacts [11] Such understanding can be facilitated by more precise identification of context-specific knowledge gaps and livelihood vulnerability assessment that can reduce the maladaptation risk of policy-making [12]. The resulting analysis highlights how multiple interpretations of livelihood vulnerability can be integrated to help inform adaptation strategies and avoid maladaptive trajectories
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