ATLAS Vulnerability Assessment Approaches & Methodologies
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to assessing climate risks to a program or activity – methodologies can range from a basic screening exercise that highlights overall risks to a robust assessment that provides in-depth analysis of when, how and to what extent climate variability and change may impact programming. ATLAS has worked across this spectrum, developing everything from high-level climate risk profiles to in-depth analyses detailing who or what is vulnerable to climate variability and change, why and how they are vulnerable and what opportunities exist to reduce these vulnerabilities. Below are some resources to help determine what type of assessment to conduct, as well as final products stemming from these multiple approaches.
Resources to determine scope
- Tools for Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation Program Interventions: A Toolkit
- Synthesizing Good Practices in Climate Adaptation Assessments
- Designing Climate Vulnerability Assessments
Resources to get started
- Sample Terms of References:
- Assessment of Climate Risks to Conservation Programming
- Assessment of Climate Risks to Food for Peace (FFP) Programming
- Assessing the impact of climate change on malaria and diarrheal disease
- Climate Risk Assessment of the Transport Sector
- Economic Assessment of Climate Change
- Improving Resiliency to Climate Change in Urban Systems
Examples of various objectives and associated deliverables
Every climate vulnerability assessment begins with an objective – one’s approach to identifying and solving the problem at hand. Below are some illustrative objectives as well as examples of the types of reports one could expect as outputs from the analysis. These examples are useful for gaining a sense of varying levels of data analysis and types of conclusions and recommendations that can be used to solve problems and inform decision-making.
Objective: Identify high-level climate risks across multiple sectors at a country level
Objective: Evaluate climate risks to a specific sector within a country
- Agriculture in Mozambique: Impact of Climate Change on Select Value Chains in Mozambique
- Biodiversity in Uganda: Climate Risks to Conservation in Uganda: An Assessment of Selected Regions
- Health in Senegal: Climate Change and Health Risks in Senegal
- Health in Mozambique: Climate Change and Health in Mozambique: Impacts on Diarrheal Disease and Malaria
- Transportation infrastructure in Jamaica: Vulnerability Assessment of Jamaica's Transport Sector
- Municipal Services in Madagascar: Climate Risks in Urban and Urbanizing Geographies: Madagascar
Objective: Identify climate risks or impacts within a specific geography
- Indonesia: Costs of Climate Change 2050
- Climate Risks in Food for Peace Geographies: Burkina Faso
- Climate Risks in Food for Peace Geographies: Niger
- Vulnerability and Adaptation in the Mara River Basin
- Vulnerability Profile: Nyangores Subcatchment of the Mara River Basin
- Vulnerability Profile: Mara Wetlands of the Mara River Basin
Objective: Analyze the adaptive capacity of groups, ecosystems, infrastructure, etc.