Vulnerability Assessment

Vulnerability assessments are used to ascertain the susceptibility of a natural or human system to sustaining damage (or benefiting) from climate change. Vulnerability is a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Vulnerability assessments differ from impact assessments in that they more fully consider adaptive management or policy responses that may lessen negative impacts (or enhance positive impacts) of climate change. Where vulnerability assessments are used to guide management or conservation actions, they are often most informative when they are "place-based" and designed to address a particular resource or system of interest. However, in the climate change literature, there are multiple definitions of vulnerability and there is no single universal assessment framework. The assessments included below focus on various exposure units, are applied at different spatial scales, and are relevant to different locations.

Trees in New York City

Urban forests will experience local climate change impacts in the coming decades.  Urban forests can be viewed as two separate but interconnected entities: natural areas and developed sites. These areas are managed and maintained in vastly different ways and by different…

Urban Forest Vulnerability

California rangelands provide millions of acres of forage supporting the state’s multi-billion-dollar animal agriculture sector, as well as providing numerous additional ecosystem services. Declines in forage quantity and overall rangeland health critically impact the livestock…

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of California Rangelands

A farmer overlooks his flooded onion fields

The Northeast Regional Vulnerability Assessment provides an overview of regional agriculture and forest sensitivities to climate change and suggests adaptation strategies that can help build resilience. The Northeastern United States is a diverse region containing the seven…

Northeast Regional Vulnerability Assessment

trees with yellow fall colors

The economic, social, and environmental costs of drought can be significant, and vulnerability to drought in arid and semi-arid regions will likely increase in the future with a warming climate. To promote stronger drought resilience on federal lands, the National Drought…

Responding to Ecological Drought in the Intermountain Region

market shelves filled with fruit

Agriculture and forestry practices in the U.S. Caribbean have had 500 years of North American, European, and African influence, as well as the legacy of indigenous cultures and farming practices. There is also a century of high caliber research in agriculture and forestry at…

Caribbean Hub Climate Vulnerability Assessment

Four panel photo of diverse Northwest landscapes

Below is a collection of vulnerability assessments relevant to the Northwest Climate Hub region and specific to Climate Hub focus areas, including agriculture, forestry, rangelands, and indigenous peoples. Assessments are useful to adaptation processes since these documents…

Northwest Vulnerability Assessments

Drying salmon

Native American and Native Alaskans are indigenous people of the United States. In the Northwest there are 44 federally recognized Native American Nations and in Alaska over 200 Tribal Nations. In addition to these nations, state governments have recognized other tribes. Tribal…

Northwest and Alaskan Tribal Nations and Climate Change

herd of cows in field

Northern Plains Climate Hub (NPCH) Vulnerability Assessment The Northern Plains has experienced increased weather variability and climatic changes throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. The NPCH Vulnerability Assessment of Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation and…

Northern Plains Climate Hub (NPCH) Vulnerability Assessment

Cows on pasture at Shelburne Farms in Vermont

The climate in the Northeast U.S. has been changing. Winters have been getting warmer and heavy rainstorms are becoming much more common. Many longtime farmers feel that the seasons have shifted, and the latest climate models indicate that these changes are likely to continue.…

Agricultural Vulnerabilities in the Northeast

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