From Vulnerability to Adaptation to Climate Change: Food for Thoughts in Social Sciences - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 258

This study provides a framework of analysis which relies on six
broad factors affecting vulnerability to climate change and, more
broadly, to global change: spatial configuration, ecosystem sensitivity,
social cohesion, diversification of economic and subsistence activities,
political and institutional organization, living conditions. Looking
through the lens of these six factors enables us to understand the
context in which the risk occurs (components and processes in action),
which is useful to the elaboration of a response strategy. So from
vulnerability, we can move on to adaptation, whose aim is to reduce
vulnerability in the long term.
The text also proposes a framework of analysis for adaptation to
climate change. It puts forward, among others, the idea that adaptation
should be looked at both as a process , a state and a strategy .
Adaptation as a process reflects whether or not the society is in the
process of adapting. Adaptation as a state expresses whether or not a
society is adapted at any point in time. Finally, adaptation as a strategy
refers to the desire or lack thereof to adapt. As these three dimensions
overlap, they help in identifying comprehensive, dynamic and flexible
ways to fight climate change impacts. The notion of adaptation
trajectory therefore explicitly refers to the dynamic nature both of
vulnerability and of adaptation.
Finally, the study provides insights on how to move from a
theoretical approach of adaptation to a more practical action
framework. The theory can be summarized as follows: the challenge
with adaptation to climate change consists of making current choices
compatible with future environmental challenges. As climate change
modeling is not, and will never be, a tool which sufficiently predicts,
in the long term, all the environmental changes, there is and always
will be a part - a part only - of uncertainty around future hazards,
including in terms of extreme events. This realization compels us to
place at the heart of a society's ability to adapt to climate change, the
notion of flexibility . Yet, two of the central pillars of flexibility are
anticipation and resilience . Anticipation refers to the ability of a
society to project itself over time, whereas resilience refers to its
ability in increasing its capacity to respond to unexpected hazards.