Climate Change and Vulnerability

by Leary, Neil; Conde, Cecelia; Kulkarni, Jyoti; Nyong, Anthony; Pulhin, Juan

• ISBN13: 9781844074693
• ISBN10: 1844074692
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Many parts of the developing world are subject to variable and extreme climate, the impacts of which impede development and point to the need to improve the understanding and management of climate risks. These needs are being amplified by human-caused climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its 2001 report that much of the developing world is highly vulnerable to adverse impacts from climate change. But the IPCC also concluded that the vulnerabilities of developing countries are too little studied and too poorly understood to enable determination of adaptation strategies that would be effective at reducing risks. Climate Change and Adaptation and its companion volume Climate Change and Vulnerability, resulting from the work of the Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC) project launched by the IPCC in 2002, are the first to provide a comprehensive investigation of the issues at stake. Climate Change and Vulnerability discusses who is vulnerable to climate change, the nature of their vulnerability and the causes of their vulnerability for parts of the world that have been poorly researched until now. The book also provides researchers with new examples of applications of vulnerability assessment methods, an approach that is of growing interest in the climate change area but for which there are relatively few applications in the literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
For whom the bell tolls: Vulnerabilities in a changing climate	p. 3
Natural Resource Systems	p. 31
Vulnerability of southern African biodiversity to climate change	p. 33
Forest responses to changing rainfall in the Philippines	p. 49
Vulnerability of Mongolia's pastoralists to climate extremes and changes	p. 67
Resource system vulnerability to climate stresses in the Heihe river basin of western China	p. 88
Coastal Areas	p. 115
Storm surges, rising seas and flood risks in metropolitan Buenos Aires	p. 117
Climate and water quality in the estuarine and coastal fisheries of the Rio de la Plata	p. 134
Climate change and the tourism dependent economy of the Seychelles	p. 155
Rural Economy and Food Security	p. 171
Household food security and climate change: Comparisons from Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa and Mexico	p. 173
Vulnerability in Nigeria: A national-level assessment	p. 198
Vulnerability in the Sahelian zone of northern Nigeria: A household-level assessment	p. 218
Livelihoods and drought in Sudan	p. 239
Social vulnerability of farmers in Mexico and Argentina	p. 257
Climatic threat spaces in Mexico and Argentina	p. 279
Climate variability and extremes in the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed of the Philippines: An assessment of vulnerability	p. 307
Climate risks and rice farming in the lower Mekong river basin	p. 333
Vulnerability of Sri Lankan tea plantations to climate change	p. 351
Human Health	p. 373
Vulnerability to climate-induced highland malaria in East Africa	p. 375
Vulnerability to dengue fever in Jamaica	p. 398
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