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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.

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