CSIR Contribution to Defining Adaptive Capacity in the Context of Environmental Change
Abstract
The grant (W911NF-14-1-0113) is based on the premise that human security and environmental security is inextricably linked and that a better understanding the relationship between human and environmental security will assist in reducing vulnerabilities and improving stability. The grant supports CSIR and ERDC research in adaptation to water-related impacts of climate change. The grant supports a comparison of historic human responses to environmental change in the Mississippi River and the Nile River, as measured by human security indicator datasets and environmental variability data. The overall goal is to measure regional adaptive capacity and thus understand how to facilitate regional stability that can withstand threats imposed by environmental impacts. Based on the outcome of this analysis, a set of metrics will be developed that will assist in measuring the adaptive capacity of a region based on past behaviour and capabilities to cope with physical or environmental changes. The research is focused on understanding and identifying vulnerabilities in developing regions that inherently have fewer institutional capabilities to handle large-scale changes. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of adaptive capacity compares areas in the Mississippi and Nile Basin. The Mississippi case area serves as a more controlled case study with the Nile Basin representing a context with more limited historical data. Environmental change and human behavior over the hundred year time scale (1910-2010) are being used for the analysis. The comparison of environmental change (eg. precipitation and temperature trends) and the corresponding human behavioural responses (eg food access and migration patterns) will provide an input to metric creation, contingent on evidence that changes in local stability are related to environmental change. These metrics will be used to measure areas of vulnerability within both study regions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA603691
Entities
People
- Karen Nortje
- Marius Claassen
Organizations
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research