Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments of Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise in the Coastal Zone: Perspectives from the Netherlands and Bangladesh

Abstract

Analysis and consensus building are two stages associated with preparing strategies for adapting to climate change. The analysis stage involves vulnerability and adaptation assessments, which have been undertaken in case studies of sea-level rise and other impacts of climate change on the Netherlands and Bangla-desh. In both case studies, the Common Methodology for assessing vulnerability to climate change, developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was used as a starting point. In the consensus-building stage, computer-based decision-support tools may be useful. These tools can be used to communicate the results of adaptation assessments to decision makers. The tools may also aid stakeholders in negotiating alternative strategies to address climate change and thus potentially increase the social acceptability of implementing adaptive strategies. Methodology and Approach to Climate Change Adaptation Preparing strategies to respond to climate change involves two stages: analysis and consensus building. During the analysis stage, a country's vulnerability to climate change is assessed through a process called vulnerability assessment, and adaptive responses that could decrease vulnerability are identified through a process called adaptation assessment. Once vulnerability and response options have been analyzed, the results of the analyses have to be communicated to decision makers. Because both the impacts of climate change and the costs of adaptive strategies will be unevenly distributed throughout economic and social J. B. Smith et al. (eds.), Adapting to Climate Change