Assessing Vulnerability to Global Environmental Change : Making Research Useful for Adaptation, Decision Making and Policy

"The book provides the most comprehensive synthesis of definitions, theories, formalization and applications to date, illustrated with examples from different disciplines, regions and periods, and from local through to regional, national and international levels. Case study topics cover sea level rise, vulnerability to changes in ecosystem services, assessing the vulnerability of human health and 'double exposure' to climate change and trade liberalization amongst other issues. Research outcomes stress that science-policy dialogues must be transparent to be effective and concentrate on a mutual understanding of the concepts used. A key research finding is that the most useful information for decision makers is that which shows the separate causes and drivers of vulnerability, rather than presenting vulnerability in an aggregated form. The book concludes with a unifying framework for analysing integrated methodologies of vulnerability assessment and guiding how research and policy can be linked to reduce vulnerability."--BOOK JACKET.

Anthony Patt leads the Decisions and Governance Research Group in the Program on Risk and Vulnerability at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. Dagmar Schroumlet;ter is currently scientific coordinator of a European Era-Net project on climate change adaptation. Richard Klein coordinates climate policy research at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Anne Cristina de la Vega-Leinert is currently a researcher and lecturer in applied geography at Griefswald University, Germany.