News

Vulnerability Assessment of Socio-Ecological Systems Report in Viet Nam is now out! Read more here.

23 December 2016

The GIZ project “Strategic Mainstreaming of Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Vietnam” finalised vulnerability assessments of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh province. In order to integrate the view on ecosystems in the assessments, the consultant team defined socio-ecological systems (SES) and key economic areas (KEA) by analysing the social, economic, and ecological realities, their exposure and sensitivity, and the adaptive capacities in both provinces. The consultant team prioritised together with the provincial partner organisations the most vulnerable SES . For the ten most vulnerable areas, an in depth analysis took place for both provinces. All important data is available for the provincial administration as GIS database.

Vulnerability describes the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity (IPCC).

Vulnerability assessments are methods that measure the vulnerability of an exposure unit or system, e.g. the vulnerability of a community or a natural system like watersheds or ecosystems. Vulnerability assessments identify, quantify and prioritize the vulnerabilities of that system.  In general, it is possible to distinguish between top-down vulnerability assessments approaches and bottom-up approaches. In integrated approaches elements of both top-down and bottom-up are combined to complement each other (GIZ).

All results are available at http://www.climatechange.vn/en/vulnerability-assessment/