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Assessing adaptive capacity within regional climate change vulnerability studies—an Alpine example

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Abstract

Adaptive capacity represents a crucial component in the assessment of a region’s vulnerability to climate change. The term adaptive capacity is only fuzzily defined, and determining it is difficult and often neglected in previous studies. In this paper, a newly developed adaptive capacity concept is introduced, with a respective indicator/criteria system and simple aggregation methods. The approach allows for adaptive capacity assessments at 3 levels of specificity (impact specific, sector specific and regional generic). The selection of indicators is tailor-made for Alpine regions, where the approach has been widely tested. The presented approach requires extended stakeholder involvement, namely for the evaluation of the indicators. The overall effort needed for its implementation remains reasonable. The outcome of the assessment exercise does not provide precise objective measurements, but remains an indicative estimation due to the fuzziness and complexity of the underlying concept. The conceptual approach is transferable to other mountain areas and beyond, the selection of indicators however is only valid for the Alpine region. The showcase presents results from the adaptive capacity assessment in the region of South Tyrol, where the method was carried out as part of a climate change vulnerability study. The outcomes indicate a number of issues that future actions could address in order to improve adaptive capacity in the region, namely in the field of prevention measures against meteorological extremes and natural hazards.

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Notes

  1. Schröter et al. (2004) developed a conceptually and methodologically strong model for the assessment of adaptive capacity but were facing limited data availability for their approach covering the whole of Europe.

  2. An example for such a chain of direct and indirect impacts is: Cause: Increase in temperature changes; direct effect: improve growing conditions in high elevation areas; indirect impact: changes in crop varieties and location of production, shift to higher elevation zones; indirect impact: increase of pest and diseases.

  3. A check of the indicator system is not included here as the methodology was developed within the specific frame of the projects, and with a focus on the region of South Tyrol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Applied Remote Sensing, European Academy (EURAC), Viale Druso 1, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Stefan Schneiderbauer, Lydia Pedoth & Marc Zebisch

  2. Institute for Renewable Energy, European Academy (EURAC), Viale Druso 1, 39100, Bolzano, Italy

    Danyang Zhang

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  1. Stefan Schneiderbauer
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  2. Lydia Pedoth
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  3. Danyang Zhang
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  4. Marc Zebisch
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Correspondence to Stefan Schneiderbauer.

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Schneiderbauer, S., Pedoth, L., Zhang, D. et al. Assessing adaptive capacity within regional climate change vulnerability studies—an Alpine example. Nat Hazards 67, 1059–1073 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9919-0

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