Combining analytical frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptation options

Abstract

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood vulnerability to climate change is based on a fractured and disparate set of theories and methods. This review therefore combines theoretical insights from sustainable livelihoods analysis with other analytical frameworks (including the ecosystem services framework, diffusion theory, social learning, adaptive management and transitions management) to assess the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to climate change. This integrated analytical framework helps diagnose vulnerability to climate change, whilst identifying and comparing adaptation options that could reduce vulnerability, following four broad steps: i) determine likely level of exposure to climate change, and how climate change might interact with existing stresses and other future drivers of change; ii) determine the sensitivity of stocks of capital assets and flows of ecosystem services to climate change; iii) identify factors influencing decisions to develop and/or adopt different adaptation strategies, based on innovation or the use/substitution of existing assets; and iv) identify and evaluate potential trade-offs between adaptation options. The paper concludes by identifying interdisciplinary research needs for assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change.

A New Systematic Approach to Vulnerability Assessment of Innovation Capability of Construction Enterprises

“…The research methods used include composite index method, fuzzy method, scenario analysis, and input-output method [14,16,21,25,33,34,[36][37][38][39]. Such assessments were conducted on behalf of a range of different organizations, from small businesses to large enterprises.…”

“…Vulnerability relates to the sensitivity to disturbance inside and outside of a system and the lack of capability to respond to make necessary changes to the system's structure and functions. In addition, sensitivity and adaptability are key components of the evaluation of the vulnerability of a system [14,16,21,33,34,[36][37][38][39].…”

Vulnerability Assessment in African Villages under Conditions of Land Use and Climate Change: Case Studies from Mkomazi and Keiskamma

“…In line with recent literature [2,6,11], these indexes also illustrate how strongly vulnerability assessments depend on social data, which in many cases cannot be drawn from available statistics, but have to be produced by data collection in the local communities. In the Mkomazi case study, social data are mainly drawn from questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions, while in the Keiskamma case study the social data mainly originate from semi-structured interviews with village headmen.…”

“…Mounting evidence for climate change led to a large number of climate change vulnerability assessments that specifically consider climate as the driving agent of change. While the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contributed to establish an understanding of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity as three key determinants of climate change related vulnerability [1] (p. 995), debates continue about methods and implementations of vulnerability assessments (e.g., [2][3][4][5][6][7]). …”

Using a novel climate–water conflict vulnerability index to capture double exposures in Lake Chad

“…Antwi-Agyei et al 2012;Reed et al 2013;Wiréhn et al 2015). Livelihood research recognises the need to understand how human and environmental conditions influence the means to make a living (Scoones 2009).…”