Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
different disciplinary fields, either through vulnerability (exposure to threats or
harm: Smit and Wandel 2006 ) or through resilience related fields (ability to persist
in the face of change: Folke 2006 ; Engle 2010 ), such as adaptive governance or
adaptive co-management. More on these alternative, but linked, perspectives shall
be discussed later in this section.
Adaptation specifically refers to the 'process, action, or outcome in a system
(household, community, group, sector, region, country) in order for the system to
better cope with, manage, or adjust to some changing condition, stress, hazard, risk,
or opportunity' (Smit and Wandel 2006 , p 282). Often, adaptation choices to climate
variability (as well as climate change) have taken the form of technical, 'hard' infra-
structure projects. Anthropological studies of how past societies have or have not
adapted to change (Brooks 2006 ; Orlove 2005 ; Diamond 2004 ) demonstrate that
communities have always had to integrate some form of adaptation into their socio-
political system. An IISD ( 2006 ) report provided the example of continuous adapta-
tion in the global pastoral range lands where uncertainty has always needed to be
managed due to perpetual disequilibrium, chaotic dynamics and where 'predictabil-
ity and control are false hopes' (Scoones 2004, in IISD 2006 , p 5). This ability to
change and adapt to new threats or realities that have manifested, known as reactive
or autonomous adaptation (Tompkins and Adger 2005 ), has in some respects become
taken for granted.
However, as society moves closer towards increasingly large climate induced
changes in environmental conditions that lie outside our range of experience (be
that personal or community memory, or institutional memory), our ability to adapt
declines. Social systems, in terms of individuals and communities, have exhibited
differing levels of ability to respond and cope with climate variability, such as sea-
sonal and decadal drought and floods (Adger and Brooks 2003 ) . However, not all
responses to climate variability may be sustainable (i.e. maladaptation) and larger
scale changes in the planetary climate system have been shown to have major
impacts on societies in the past (Tompkins and Adger 2004 ; Diamond 2004 ) . This
erosion in ability to adapt heightens exposure to the risk of climate change impacts,
i.e. increasing vulnerability of the system.
Vulnerability is the extent to which a system (individuals or communities) is
susceptible to, and unable to cope with, conditions that adversely affect their well-
being, such as climate change, through climate variability and extremes (Plummer
and Armitage 2007 ). Vulnerability comprises a number of components including
exposure to impacts, sensitivity, and the capacity to adapt (Adger and Vincent 2005 ;
IPCC 2001 ). There are a number of well-de fi ned indicators of vulnerability to climate
change: economic well-being and inequality, health and nutritional status, educa-
tion, physical infrastructure, governance, geographic and demographic factors, agri-
culture, ecosystems, and technological capacity (Brooks et al. 2005 ) . Scholars have
suggested that the 'fundamental contribution of governance to reducing the vulner-
abilities of people rests on its ability to anticipate problems and to manage risk and
challenges in a way that balances social, economic, and natural interests'(Adger
et al. 2007 ) .
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