Climate Change – Risk and Vulnerability Mapping and Analysis
Example Applications and Reports
- How Climate Change Fuels Increasing Wildfire Disasters – Written by Travis Christensen – This comprehensive guide explores the intricate relationship between climate change and wildfire disasters. You’ll learn how rising global temperatures create conditions that favor more frequent and severe fires, understand the profound impacts on both ecosystems and communities, and learn about crucial adaptation strategies. It explores the latest scientific research, examine real-world case studies, and provide practical insights into how communities can build resilience in the face of this growing threat. Thank you to Sohana and Ms. Lily Harris for providing this valuable resource.
- SEDAC (Columbia University) – Climate Impact, Vulnerability, and Adaptation – a major clearinghouse for climate related data, maps, and research
- Climate Wizard – an online mapping site for viewing historical climate data and IPCC scenarios. Very useful for looking at geographic data online before you download it for your own analyses.
- ESRI’s GIS and Climate Change site – case studies, data models, and bibliographies
- NOAA – Digital Coast – http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/– NOAA’s array of applications dealing with coastal studies, including the impacts of climate change
- Tufts Global Development and Environment Institute – Climate Change – Costs of Inaction – a series of studies that explore the economic costs of climate change by comparing two scenarios – business as usual (do nothing different) and rapid stabilization. The Florida case study made extensive use of GIS.
- Pacific Institute, The Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on the California Coast (2009) – vulnerability analysis and mapping – report, maps, and GIS data available for download
- Rutgers, Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis – Vulnerability of New Jersey’s Coastal Habitats to Sea Level Rise – interesting study of what habitats along the Jersey shore will be most affected by sea level rise. Check out other studies at Rutgers Coastal Studies Program.
- South Florida Regional Planning Council – Sea Level Rise Project – detailed studies of South Florida counties, includes draft maps, a report on how it was done and a powerpoint presentation
Peer Reviewed Literature Examples
- Snow, M., & Snow, R. (2009, October). Modeling, monitoring, and mitigating sea level rise. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 20(4), 422-433. Retrieved August 31, 2009, doi:10.1108/14777830910963753
- Clark, George E. et al. Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: the Case of Revere, MA, USA. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 3: 59–82, 1998
- Wu, Shuang-Ye et al. 2002. Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Sea-Level Rise: A Case Study of Cape May County,New Jersey. Climate Research 22(255-270).
- Michael, Jeffery A. 2007. Episodic Flooding and the Cost of Sea-Level Rise. Ecological Economics 63(1):149-159.
- Brown, Iain. 2006. Modelling future landscape change on coastal floodplains using a rule-based GIS. Environmental Modelling and Software 21(10):1479-1490
Also, look through the journal Disasters (full text articles, tables of contents, available through Tufts Electronic Journals site)