Vulnerability Indicators of Adaptation to Climate Change and Policy Implications for Investment Projects

Accesible PDF image
Peer Reviewed icon Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Oct 2015
Subject
Forest and Forestry;
Coastal Area;
Water Management;
Irrigation and Drainage;
Development Bank;
Investment Project
JEL code
F34 - International Lending and Debt Problems;
H43 - Project Evaluation • Social Discount Rate;
Q54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming;
Z18 - Public Policy
Country
Barbados;
Argentina;
Bolivia;
Mexico;
Brazil;
Nicaragua
Category
Technical Notes
Relevant and appropriate indicators for vulnerability at both the local levels are significant for effective adaptation to climate change. The paper reviews the literature of these indicators, and explores this issue using a selected sample of development projects from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to assess the measurement of vulnerability. We find the importance of assessing vulnerability based on local indicators reflecting the characteristics of different sectors. The results of analyzing the IDB projects case studies suggest that projects should be designed from project inception to include more relevant indicators of measuring exposure and sensitivity besides adaptive capacity, depending on the attributes of projects. We show that relevant vulnerability indicators can be developed for projects based on existing information.