Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments

Providing comprehensive guidance on methods for evaluating the potential impacts of climate change and possible adaptation strategies to cope with those impacts, this handbook offers step-by-step instructions on the application of specific assessment methods. It covers the fo llowing sectors: agriculture, grasslands and livestock, forests, water resources, coastal resources, human health, fisheries and wildlife. The book also offers guidance on the creation of climate change scenarios at a country level, togehter with detailed descriptions of steps to follow in the application of selected assessment methods, data requirements for the methods, interpretation of results, and limitations of the methods. The methodologies described have been widely used in published studies. Over 50 of the developing countries and countries with economies in transition participating in the US Country Studies Program used an earlier version of this handbook as a tool for their vulnerability and adaptation studies.
The handbook is designed to complement the "Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations" prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 1994), building on the analytical framework and discussion of alternative methods in the IPCC guidelines.