Previous research has postulated that climate change will lead to mass migration. However, the linkages postulated between the two have not been explicitly demonstrated but have rather been derived from 'common sense'. In this paper, the connection between climate change and migration via two mechanisms, sea level rise and floods, is investigated and depicted in conceptual models. In both cases, a connection can be traced and the linkages are made explicit. However, the study also clearly shows that the connection is by no means deterministic but depends on numerous factors relating to the vulnerability of the people and the region in question.
Climate is an important resource for many types of tourism. One of several metrics for the suitability of climate for sightseeing is Mieczkowski's "Tourism Climatic Index" (TCI), which summarizes and combines seven climate variables. By means of the TCI, we analyse the present climate resources for tourism in Europe and projected changes under future climate change. We use daily data from five regional climate models and compare the reference period to the A2 scenario in 2071-2100. A comparison of the TCI based on reanalysis data and model simulations for the reference period shows that current regional climate models capture the important climatic patterns. Currently, climate resources are best in Southern Europe and deteriorate with increasing latitude and altitude. With climate change the latitudinal band of favourable climate is projected to shift northward improving climate resources in Northern and Central Europe in most seasons. Southern Europe's suitability for sightseeing tourism drops strikingly in the summer holiday months but is partially compensated by considerable improvements between October and April.
The attractiveness of a region for touristic activities depends strongly on the local weather and climate. This paper analyses the vulnerability of the beach tourism sector towards climate change by means of an index approach on a country level. A vulnerability framework for the tourism sector is developed and on its basis, indicators are defined for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. A transparent index approach, including a robustness analysis with multiple transformation methods and weighting sets, yields an assessment of the overall relative vulnerability of the beach tourism sector in 51 countries. Aggregate results on an annual level are presented as a starting point for a more detailed comparison of countries based on the individual indicators. The important limitations regarding the availability of accurate indicators as well as the concept of vulnerability itself are discussed. Despite these limitations, the present study contributes to integrating the numerous direct as well as indirect effects climate change may have on beach tourism.
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