Adaptive capacity and its assessment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.019Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper reviews the concept of adaptive capacity and various approaches to assessing it, particularly with respect to climate variability and change. I find that adaptive capacity is a relatively under-researched topic within the sustainability science and global change communities, particularly since it is uniquely positioned to improve linkages between vulnerability and resilience research. I identify opportunities for advancing the measurement and characterization of adaptive capacity by combining insights from both vulnerability and resilience frameworks, and I suggest several assessment approaches for possible future development that draw from both frameworks and focus on analyzing the governance, institutions, and management that have helped foster adaptive capacity in light of recent climatic events.

Research highlights

► Adaptive capacity is a central, but often overlooked concept within both vulnerability and resilience frameworks. ► Assessments of adaptive capacity that draw from the benefits of both vulnerability and resilience research can serve to advance theory and application within the field of sustainability science. ► Assessments can be improved by examining governance, institutions, and management preparations for and responses to recent climatic events. ► Additional novel approaches need to be considered for measuring and characterizing adaptive capacity.

Introduction

The increasing threat of climate change taxes human aspirations toward a sustainable planet, as the sheer magnitude of the problem and the potential to challenge existing paradigms beyond the thresholds of historical practice make it one of the most complex and far reaching issues humans have ever encountered (World Bank, 2009). While discussions of sustainability in relation to climate change frequently pertain to prevention or mitigation, there are similarly important sustainability implications regarding the ways that ecosystems and societies will adapt to climatic changes. Researchers and practitioners are faced with determining how to best prepare for the expected and unexpected impacts of climate change in a manner that is sustainable, balances various competing social interests for the provisioning of ecosystems goods and services (Robards et al., 2011), and takes into account the myriad pressures of multiple environmental stresses (National Research Council, 2007).

In recent years, the global change community has experienced a wave of activity in the area of adaptation to climate change studies (Pielke et al., 2007). The majority of adaptation research has originated within the frameworks of vulnerability, or the susceptibility to harm (Eakin and Luers, 2006), and resilience, or achieving desirable states in the face of change (Folke, 2006). As with most conceptual frameworks, vulnerability and resilience have histories of alternative and sometime competing characterizations and interpretations, and the two are not merely opposite sides of the same coin (Gallopín, 2006). Despite continued debate with respect to definitions and the precise relationships between the two literatures, there is considerable demand for understanding the causal relationships between adaptation and sustainability, as well as the types of decision-support tools and metrics that can facilitate more desirable outcomes in the face of climate change. Such demand warrants a more concerted focus on what unites the two literatures rather than what divides them.

One pivotal concept in both the vulnerability and resilience literatures that bridges these traditions is adaptive capacity, or adaptability; meaning the ability of a system to prepare for stresses and changes in advance or adjust and respond to the effects caused by the stresses (Smit et al., 2001). Increasing adaptive capacity improves the opportunity of systems to manage varying ranges and magnitudes of climate impacts, while allowing for flexibility to rework approaches if deemed at a later date to be on an undesirable trajectory.

The motivating question for this article is, ‘what role does adaptive capacity play in sustainability and global change research, and how might researchers, scholars, and practitioners improve knowledge and understanding around this concept?’ While studies often consider adaptive capacity (e.g., Nelson et al., 2007, Pahl-Wostl, 2009), there are few efforts that aim specifically to evaluate adaptive capacity across vulnerability and resilience frameworks, and perhaps even fewer that seek to improve assessment approaches for understanding adaptive capacity dynamics. I begin by briefly reviewing the concept of adaptive capacity, and illustrate how it serves as a common thread within the vulnerability and resilience literatures. I demonstrate why drawing from only one challenges the ability of researchers and practitioners to sufficiently understand and assess adaptive capacity, and that combining frameworks might allow for a more thorough consideration of critical system components and practical implementation and application to broader contexts. Also, since adaptive capacity is highly influenced by governance, management, and institutions, I suggest that there is much to gain by examining preparations for and responses to recent climatic events to understand how adaptive capacity may or may not be built and mobilized with respect to future climate change. Finally, I conclude with several ideas for how vulnerability and resilience frameworks could inform future adaptive capacity assessments, with the intention of initiating dialogue and challenging researchers to develop novel approaches to evaluating this increasingly important concept.

Section snippets

Origins in adaptation

In simple terms, adaptive capacity describes the ability to adapt. Earlier works in sociology and organizational and business management provide the historical underpinnings for adaptive capacity; describing it as a requisite property for leadership and organizational success, for it maintains a repertoire of potential solutions to unforeseen problems and unpredictable variations, and allows for learning and adjustment despite the existence of its unalterable features (Parsons, 1964,

Current challenges with focusing on vulnerability or resilience

Despite evidence for an emerging integration of vulnerability and resilience literatures into a unified vernacular and agenda for sustainability science (Janssen et al., 2006, Miller et al., 2010), there is reason to believe that there remains some division between the two frameworks (Turner, 2010). Perhaps the most frequent criticism is that the resilience community still insufficiently deals with the social aspects of SES, while the vulnerability community continues to insufficiently deal

Summary

Building adaptive capacity is by no means a panacea for adaptation studies, but further investigation and understanding around the concept might increase the likelihood of achieving sustainable outcomes in the face of climate change. With its roots in organizational theory, adaptive capacity has gained greater attention through the issue of climate change as documented in the works of the IPCC. The concept is uniquely situated within two predominant paradigms in the global change research

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the many conversations with Maria Carmen Lemos that profoundly influenced the direction of this article. I also thank Dan Miller for his input on a preliminary draft of this manuscript, as well as the helpful comments from Elizabeth Malone and three anonymous reviewers.

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