Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: Case of Coastal Cities in South East Asia

Abstract

As climate change is likely to have negative impacts on coastal areas in many regions including South East Asia, improved knowledge on the understanding of assessment methods and results is gaining interest. Based on an on-going project implemented by the asian institute of technology (AIT) and partners in South East Asia, with the goal to enhance local adaptive capacities through learning from the cooperative research results on climate change impacts in coastal cities of the region, this paper provides overall information and progressive results of the project, including a review of climate change vulnerability and risk assessment processes, as well as available tools/techniques for the assessment, whilst also conducting a rapid vulnerability assessment (RVA) with a case study. Conclusions and recommendations are also made for the next steps of the project and possible contributions to other related projects and cities.