vulnerability assessment

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA recently announced the release of the first national strategy to help decision makers and resource managers prepare for the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems.

In a forum on the risks of climate change on California agriculture, experts discussed the potential for complete crop failure—especially among fruit—as winter lows continue to rise, according to the Contra Costa Times.

 

Posted by Michelli Murphy | on July 09, 2009
A team of researchers at the UA and in Mexico are developing the kind of climate information communities on both sides of the border need to manage their water in the face of climatic uncertainties.

This figure illustrates conceptual relationships between climate variability and change, vulnerability, and adaptation. Under a variable climate systems and organizations develop a capacity to adapt that is relatively static. As the climate changes, past capacity to adapt may not be sufficient to avoid greater vulnerability.

With the use of Geographic Information Systems, researchers were able to create this map and others of the California coastline that show how areas succeptible to coastal flooding will expand as sea level rises.