Assessing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change from an Evolutionary Perspective - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 79

such as local class systems, resource management, food security and confl ict.
Empirical methods are then supplemented by thorough examination third-party data
concerning the local history, ecology, economy, culture, politics, government poli-
cies and other institutions. In this manner, the stories behind the numbers emerge,
which often get lost in quantitative analyses, and a more accurate picture is painted
of how structure and agency interact to create local evolutionary trajectories. Box
4.3 describes an ongoing qualitative vulnerability assessment conducted by a team
that includes the authors of this chapter.
Box 4.3 Global Islands' Vulnerability Research Adaptation
and Policy Development Project (GIVRAPD)
GIVRAPD is an ongoing research project on vulnerability and adaptation to
climate change in four island communities in the Caribbean (St Lucia and
Jamaica) and the Indian Ocean (Mauritius and Seychelles). Led by the not-for-
profi t organization INTASAVE, the project aims to identify the multi-scale,
socio-cultural, economic, institutional and ecological factors that shape local
vulnerability and capacity to adapt to climate change and extreme events. The
project has four components. First, downscaled climate scenarios have been
developed for each nation to better understand each community's changing
exposure to climate stimuli; and coastal mapping has been used to ground-truth
predicted sea level rise in each scenario. The second component, carried out
simultaneously with the fi rst, involved a community-based vulnerability assess-
ment (CBVA) at each site, the methodology of which is described in detail
below. Third, focus group workshops and key informant interviews were used
to map the governance structures in each community and to diagnose barriers to
planned adaptation at national and community scales. Finally, a micro-insur-
ance component involved semi-structured interviews and workshops to assess
local demand for micro-insurance products and potential distribution channels.
The CBVA methodology, which formed part of the core work at each fi eld
site, is elaborated in the work of Smit and Wandel ( 2006 ). Interviews with key
informants were carried out prior to each fi eld study to determine the site-
specifi c topics that would be covered in addition to the general topics described
below. The fi eld study comprised semi-structured interviews with community
members within or related to the tourism, fi sheries and agricultural sectors. In
each case, local partners became part of the research team, with involvement
ranging from introducing the GIVRAPD team to the fi eld site to actively par-
ticipating in interviews. Where English was not the respondent's fi rst language,
local interpreters joined the researchers. A snowball sampling methodology
was employed in which interviewed individuals were asked to suggest addi-
tional interview subjects. To ensure adequate representation of the population,
multiple “snowballs” were initiated, and interviews were carried out until
(continued)