Getting Through the Bottleneck:  Vulnerability Assessment
Aired: March 21st, 2012, 1:00 pm PT/2:00 pm MT
Presenters:  Laurna Kaatz - Climate Scientist, Planning Division, Denver Water
Curt Baranowski - Team Lead, Climate Ready Water Utilities Initiative USEPA
Dr. Holly Hartmann - Carpe Diem West Academy Director & University of Arizona
Dr. Kiyomi Morino - Research Associate, University of Arizona

Description

In the Academy’s first webinar, we talked about the “adaptation bottleneck,” where decision-makers have awareness of the broader impacts of climate change but are finding it difficult to move forward in the development of adaptation policies.  In these cases, climate change knowledge is too general to be practically applied. More specific information is needed. 

This is where vulnerability assessment comes in – it has three main objectives: 1) to identify who or what has the most exposure to climate change; 2) to determine the range of tolerance for these entities; and 3) to characterize the ability of the system, including social and institutional factors, to accommodate climate change. 

With this information in hand, decision-makers can begin to formulate adaptation policy and proceed with collecting climate change information relevant to their organization, leaving the bottleneck behind!

Join us as we learn from experts in the field about how to do vulnerability assessments, key lessons, and how to best share the findings with decision makers.

View PowerPoint Slides