Understanding human vulnerability to climate change: A global perspective on index validation for adaptation planning

Birkmann, Joern; Jamshed, Ali; McMillan, Joanna M.; Feldmeyer, Daniel; Totin, Edmond; Solecki, William; Ibrahim, Zelina Zaiton; Roberts, Debra; Kerr, Rachel Bezner; Poertner, Hans; Pelling, Mark; Djalante, Riyanti; Garschagen, Matthias; Filho, Walter Leal; Guha-Sapir, Debarati; Alegría, Andrés

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150065

Cited by 145 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Many researchers have focused on climate change information and hazard data such as rising sea levels, floods, etc., but they give less attention to assessing vulnerability to climate change. Birkmann et al [27] conducted their research in order to divert the attention of researchers towards such an assessment. They used different options to validate vulnerability assessment in terms of external and internal validity.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Role of Energy Mix in Determining Climate Change Vulnerability in G7 Countries

et al. 2022

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Anthropogenic activities are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, causing extreme events like soil erosion, droughts, floods, forest fires and tornadoes. Fossil fuel consumption produces CO2, and trapping heat is the major reason for a rapid increase in global temperature, and electricity generation is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. Fossil fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and their adverse impact have become the focus of efforts to mitigate climate change vulnerability. This study explores empirical determinants of vulnerability to climate change such as ecosystem, food, health and infrastructure. The sustainable use of energy is necessary for development, and a source of response to climate change. The present study focuses on renewable energy consumption to determine climate vulnerability in G7 countries between 1995 and 2019. The panel ARDL approach showed that the renewable to non-renewable energy mix showed a quadratic effect on vulnerability, whereby a minimum threshold of renewable energy is required to witness a reduction in food, health and infrastructure vulnerability. Other results indicate that trade openness and development expenditures reduce health vulnerability. Development expenditures also decrease ecosystem vulnerability, while trade openness increases it. However, both of these variables increase infrastructure vulnerability. Avoiding severe food and water crises requires investment to tackle climate change, conserve energy and water resources, reform global trade and food markets, and adapting and adopting climate-resilient responses to change.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This leads to climate injustice. Countries ranked higher in vulnerability have a mortality rate 15 times higher per hazard from drought, floods and storms than those ranked lower [27]. The cost of climate change can be spread across nations through trade.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Energy Mix in Determining Climate Change Vulnerability in G7 Countries

et al. 2022

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“…A variety of different assessment approaches exist, based on different schools of thought and therefore based on different indicators, each with a different focus, leading to different results (Birkmann et al 2021a;Birkmann et al 2021b;Garschagen 2021). To capture the variety in assessing risk and human vulnerability, the following section provides an overview of key differences and similarities of four approaches, with global orientation, acknowledged as valid and including a link to adaptation.…”

Section: Four Global Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global vulnerability hotspots: differences and agreement between international indicator-based assessments

et al. 2021

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Climate change impacts and their consequences are determined not only by the intensity and frequency of different climatic hazards but also by the vulnerability of the system, society or community exposed. While general agreement exists about the importance of assessing vulnerability to understand climate risks, there is still a tendency to neglect global and regional vulnerability patterns because they are hard to quantify, despite their value in informing adaptation, disaster risk and development policies. Several approaches to quantifying global vulnerability exist. These differ in terms of the indicators they use and how they classify countries or regions into vulnerability classes. The paper presents the structure of selected approaches and explores two indices in depth. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of agreement between selected international indicator-based assessments of vulnerability, at the level of climate regions. Results suggest that the two major global vulnerability assessments analysed largely agree on the location of the most and least vulnerable regions when these assessments are aggregated to a regional scale using the IPCC’s climate regions. The paper then discusses the robustness of the information derived and its usefulness for adaptation, disaster risk and development policies. Measuring progress towards reducing vulnerability to climate change and hazards is key for various agencies and actors in order to be able to develop informed policies and strategies for managing climate risks and to promote enabling conditions for achieving the SDGs and building resilience.

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“…That is, a hazard can be regarded as an external, sudden, and instantaneous event that has a negative impact on society as a whole within a specific time and space. Similarly, Birkmann et al [38] defined a hazard as an event that causes social chaos and material damage. Mazzorana et al [39] used exceptions and breaks through conventions to describe the relationship between hazards and social order, believing that "hazards are the destruction of social conventions".…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scenario-Based Comprehensive Assessment for Community Resilience Adapted to Fire Following an Earthquake, Implementing the Analytic Network Process and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enriched Evaluation II Techniques

Chen

Yan

et al. 2021

Buildings

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Natural hazards bring significant influences on and socioeconomic loss to cities and communities. Historic events show that fire following earthquake (FFE) is the most influential uncertain disturbance on the urban infrastructure system. Under the FFE scenario, the concept of resilience is widely implemented to make up the shortcomings derived from the traditional disaster management methodology. Resilient cities and communities are required to improve the systemic performance in responding to the FFE. To fulfill these goals, measuring community resilience is an essential work for municipal policy makers. Therefore, this study conducted a comprehensive assessment on community resilience adapted to the FFE scenario. The systematic literature review (SLR) was employed to identify the indicators, and the analytic network process (ANP) technique was implemented to determine their weights. 20 indicators were extracted, and 4 communities that encountered FFE in China were selected for the empirical analysis. Thereafter, the preference ranking organization method for enriched evaluation (PROMETHEE) II technique was selected through using the multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods selection framework to fulfill the comprehensive assessment. The results were discussed and demonstrated with graphical analysis for interactive aid (GAIA) technique. The findings revealed that the G Community won the highest score and had the strongest performance. However, H Community had the lowest score and the weakest performance. The proposed comprehensive methods could benefit the decision-makers and the policy executors achieving the community resilience adapted to the FFE scenario by improving the effective indicators.

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Understanding human vulnerability to climate change: A global perspective on index validation for adaptation planning

Cited by 145 publications

References 36 publications

Role of Energy Mix in Determining Climate Change Vulnerability in G7 Countries

Role of Energy Mix in Determining Climate Change Vulnerability in G7 Countries

Global vulnerability hotspots: differences and agreement between international indicator-based assessments

Scenario-Based Comprehensive Assessment for Community Resilience Adapted to Fire Following an Earthquake, Implementing the Analytic Network Process and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enriched Evaluation II Techniques

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