Reflecting on the challenges and barriers of performing climate change vulnerability assessments in Scotland

Abstract

Different conceptual perspectives and analytical approaches can be pursued in the analysis of climate change vulnerability. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches which frame and assess vulnerability in different ways using different methods and tools. Bottom-up approaches tend to focus on the analysis of vulnerability at the local level by addressing local conditions and processes that influence and affect the vulnerability of a system to climate change. However, performing vulnerability assessments (VA) using this type of analytical approach can be hindered and limited by numerous challenges such as the access to and quality of, data as well as the analytical compromises and trade-offs that come out of those challenges. Focusing on the farming sector, this paper reflects on “the challenges, compromises and analytical trade-offs” that were made to perform the analysis of vulnerability using a bottom-up approach in the Ayrshire region of Scotland.