Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Conceptual Review toward a Scheme for Selecting indicators

Abstract

To minimize the impacts of climate change, there is a need to identify scientifically the risk and develop appropriate countermeasures. The three main components of climate change risk are “hazard”, “exposure”, and “vulnerability”. While scientific understanding of hazard and exposure has improved over the years, it is not clear how vulnerability should be assessed and how vulnerability indicators should be selected. This study reviews the past studies on vulnerability to climate change, focusing on its conceptual development and indicators. Finally, this study develops a scheme for selecting indicators of vulnerability to climate change. This scheme can contribute to develop adaptation measures.