From Vulnerability to Adaptation to Climate Change: Food for Thoughts in Social Sciences - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 248

of vulnerability is therefore transdisciplinary by nature, where social
sciences play a major role.
6.4. From vulnerability to adaptation: theoretical framework
6.4.1. The dynamic relationships between vulnerability and
adaptation
The essence of the analysis of the vulnerability of a system is to
understand how the latter works (what risks threaten it? What
challenges? What regulations are required?), and then to imagine
future scenarios and propose pragmatic responses to these [DOW 03].
In turn, the implementation of adaptation strategies should aim to
reduce the vulnerability of a given territory to natural hazards over the
long-term. According to the IPCC still, adaptation is “the adjustment
of natural or human systems in response to present and future climatic
stimuli or to their effects, in order to mitigate the damage or to exploit
beneficial opportunities”.
From this point, schools of thought diverge and consider
vulnerability as a function of societies' ability to adapt, or conversely,
consider adaptation as a function of the level of vulnerability. A
different position consists of claiming that two stages of vulnerability
can be distinguished depending on whether the climate change
dimension is taken into account or not. In addition to climate change
concern, every territory is subject to some types of natural hazards. In
fact, although climate change could generate some hazards that are
unknown to the territory in question, it is most likely to exacerbate its
level of exposure to known hazards. Each territory therefore reports a
level of vulnerability that is intrinsic (or original) and which is
modified by climate change. The resulting vulnerability is a second
state which, more than the previous one, will depend on the forms of
adaptation implemented by the society (in order to reduce the level of
intrinsic vulnerability). Therefore, we claim here that vulnerability is a
good indicator in the case of climate change of the efficiency of
adaptation measures.