Uncertainty in adaptive capacity

Abstract

The capacity to adapt is a critical element of the process of adaptation: it is the vector of resources that represent the asset base from which adaptation actions can be made. Adaptive capacity can in theory be identified and measured at various scales, from the individual to the nation. The assessment of uncertainty within such measures comes from the contested knowledge domain and theories surrounding the nature of the determinants of adaptive capacity and the human action of adaptation. While generic adaptive capacity at the national level, for example, is often postulated as being dependent on health, governance and political rights, and literacy, and economic well-being, the determinants of these variables at national levels are not widely understood. We outline the nature of this uncertainty for the major elements of adaptive capacity and illustrate these issues with the example of a social vulnerability index for countries in Africa.

Identifying drivers of household coping strategies to multiple climatic hazards in Western Uganda: implications for adapting to future climate change

“…It is argued that will enable more targeted and appropriate climate adaptation policies (Adger and Vincent 2005). Earlier studies have examined slow-onset climatic hazards such as droughts (Roncoli et al 2001), as well as household responses to rapid-onset events such as floods (Motsholapheko et al 2011), showing the importance of shortterm labour switching, as well as longer term diversification.…”

Climate change adaptation and sustainable regional development: a case study for the Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany

“…It is evident, however, that high adaptive capacity does not necessarily translate into action (Adger and Vincent 2005;Adger et al 2007) and even forestry projects for climate change mitigation (i.e. planting trees to 'remove carbon from the atmosphere') seldom consider adaptation to climate change in their management plans ) despite their necessarily longer-term outlook.…”

Adaptation of agriculture to climate change in semi-arid Borena, Ethiopia

“…So while AC and the five capitals provide an abstract way of representing the potential of a household to adapt (Adger and Vincent 2005;Dulal et al 2010;Eakin and Bojorquez-Tapia 2008;Tompkins and Adger 2004) and can be used to compare systems (cf. Deressa et al 2009), for site-specific studies they are perhaps not the best way of analysing the adoption behaviour of households.…”