Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...
Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...
Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...
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Key TermsxixExposure 3 – The nature <strong>and</strong> degree to which a system is exposed to significant climaticvariations.Mainstreaming – The incorporation of climate change considerations into established orongoing development programs, policies, or management strategies rather than developingadaptation <strong>and</strong> mitigation initiatives separately.Mitigation 1 – An anthropogenic intervention to reduce the anthropogenic forcing of theclimate system, including strategies to reduce greenhouse gas sources <strong>and</strong> emissions<strong>and</strong> enhance greenhouse gas sinks.Resilience 2 – The ability of a system <strong>and</strong> its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate,or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely <strong>and</strong> efficientmanner through ensuring the preservation, restoration, or improvement of its essentialbasic structures <strong>and</strong> functions.Risk 3 – Combination of the probability of an event <strong>and</strong> its consequences.Sensitivity 1 – Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected either adversely orbeneficially by climate variability or change. The effect may be direct, such as a changein crop yield in response to a change in the mean, range, or variability of temperature,or indirect, such as damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal floodingdue to sea-level rise.Thermal Expansion 4 – In connection with sea level, this refers to the increase in volume(<strong>and</strong> decrease in density) that results from warming water. A warming of the oceanleads to an expansion of the ocean volume <strong>and</strong> hence an increase in sea level.Threshold 1 – The level of magnitude of a system process at which sudden or rapidchange occurs. A point or level at which new properties emerge in an ecological, economicor other system, invalidating predictions based on mathematical relationshipsthat apply at lower levels.Transformation 2 – The altering of fundamental attributes of a system (including valuesystems; regulatory, legislative, or bureaucratic regimes; financial institutions; <strong>and</strong> technologicalor biological systems).Vulnerability 1 – the degree to which a system is susceptible to, <strong>and</strong> unable to cope with,adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability <strong>and</strong> extremes. Vulnerabilityis a function of the character, magnitude, <strong>and</strong> rate of climate change <strong>and</strong> variationto which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, <strong>and</strong> its adaptive capacity.3 IPCC, 2001: <strong>Climate</strong> Change 2001: <strong>Impacts</strong>, <strong>Adaptation</strong>, <strong>and</strong> Vulnerability. J. J. McCarthy, O. F. Canziani, N.A. Leary, D. J. Dokken <strong>and</strong> K. S. White (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom <strong>and</strong>New York, NY, USA, glossary, pp. 982-996.4 IPCC, 2001: <strong>Climate</strong> Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third AssessmentReport of the Intergovernmental Panel on <strong>Climate</strong> Change [Houghton, J.T.,Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs,M. Noguer, P.J. van der Linden, X. Dai, K.Maskell, <strong>and</strong> C.A. Johnson (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, United Kingdom <strong>and</strong> New York, NY, USA, glossary, pp. 787-797.