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A framework for analysing regional adaptive capacity assessments: challenges for methodology and policy making

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Abstract

The assessment of regional vulnerability to climate change has become an important issue in climate change adaptation. In order to aid decision making in terms of prioritising adaptation action or allocating resources for adaptation measures, both scholars and policy makers emphasise the need for comprehensive and spatially explicit vulnerability studies. Adaptive capacity is not only an important part of vulnerability assessments, it also underlies and enables the governing of adaptation activities, thus making it an issue relevant to policy. Hence, the assessment of adaptive capacity gives decision makers on international, national and regional level important information to develop adaptation policy. Drawing on current vulnerability and adaptive capacity studies, the objective of this paper is to present a framework that structures adaptive capacity assessments based on science-policy interaction, discussing the objectives of the assessment, the methodology and the use of results. The framework is applied to two examples: a pan-European assessment of adaptive capacity and an assessment of the adaptive capacity of the tourism sector in the European Alps, both on the regional level. The main findings show how decisions related to methodology can influence the use of results in decision making. In conclusion, this paper contributes to the literature by arguing that more attention needs to be paid to assessment design in order to better support the mobilisation of adaptive capacity for adaptation.

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Notes

  1. EUROSTAT is the European Union Commissions database.

  2. EM-DAT is the International Disaster Database by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)

  3. ESPON project 2013/1/4 “Climate change and territorial effects on regions and local economies”.

  4. Concerns of equity, the sixth IPCC determinant, were considered as part of the institutions and economic resources determinants with proxies such as gendered participation in political life and long-term unemployment.

  5. Ability here refers to the capacities that underlie the society’s ability, i.e. infrastructure and technology, to adapt. Action here refers to the capacities that are necessary to take action, i.e. political institutions.

  6. Some regions and countries are left out of the maps, including Switzerland. This is due to difficulties of obtaining data for two of the indicators (computer skills and attitudes towards climate change) and thus an aggregation was not possible.

  7. The questionnaire was sent to a total of 193 tourism organisations, representatives of public authorities for economic development, environmental agencies and spatial planning authorities at both national and regional levels in the eight Alpine countries, yielding a response from 94.

  8. For detailed results concerning willingness to adapt, barriers to adaptation, current and future adaptation strategies please see (Kruse et al. 2013, Matasci et al. 2013).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments. The authors also thank Stefan Schneiderbauer for his helpful comments during the writing of the manuscript. Naturally the authors are thankful to the ESPON Climate Project for funding the initial work. The lead author acknowledges the COST Action Number IS0802 Transformation of Global Environmental Governance: Risks and Opportunities (TGEG) STSM funding that enabled her to visit the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Zurich, and the Aalto Starting Grant from Aalto University.

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  1. Department of Real Estate, Planning and Geoinformatics, Aalto University, PO Box 12200, 00076, Espoo, Finland

    Sirkku Juhola

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Sirkku Juhola

  3. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Sylvia Kruse

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  1. Sirkku Juhola
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Correspondence to Sirkku Juhola.

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Juhola, S., Kruse, S. A framework for analysing regional adaptive capacity assessments: challenges for methodology and policy making. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 20, 99–120 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-013-9481-z

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