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Adaptation to Water-Induced Hazards in Chitral, PakistanThe third chapter describes the general characteristics of the selected areas, patterns of change, and impacts of waterstresses and hazards. The fourth chapter deals with people’s responses to water stresses and hazards, and, in the fi fthchapter, factors infl uencing the adaptive capacity of the people are discussed. In the sixth chapter, communities’ adaptationstrategies have been assessed and evaluated in the context of ideal situations and best practices globally.The overall aim of the study is to understand how people in the HKH region respond to water stress and hazards in theface of climate variability and change. The objectives are as follows.(1) To assess the impacts of water stress and hazards on livelihoods(2) To assess local responses to water stresses and hazards(3) To provide recommendations for adaptation to future climate change.The overarching question that the fi eld teams are seeking to answer is how do people in the HKH region respond to waterstress and related hazards in the context of climate variability and change? This question is approached in selected sites byexamining the following.(1) How are people affected by water stress and hazards?(2) What are the local short and long-term responses?(3) To what extent can these strategies reduce vulnerability to water stress and hazards?Research approach and methodsTeam profileThe profi le of the study team is shown in Table 1.Table 1: Profile of the study teamS.NoTeam Member Academic Background Professional Background Ethnicity Gender Role in researchteam1 Shahid Nadeem MSc. in Sustainable Development (UK)MSc. Agriculture (Rural Development)Monitoring & Evaluation Local Male Team leader2 Abdul Hadi Masters in Public Administration Monitoring & Evaluation Local Male Team member3 Ihsan Uddin MA in Social AnthropologyMonitoring & EvaluationLocal Male Team memberDiploma in Local Government4 Imran Elahi MSc. In GeographySocial MobilisationMonitoring & Evaluation Local Male Team memberDiploma in GIS & Remote Sensing5 Munira Sultana B.A Social MobilisationData collectionLocal Female Part time teammemberConceptsThe is no local word for vulnerability; however, the closest phrase describing this concept in the Khowar language is‘khakavesik’, and this term embraces a level of insecurity for people, their moveable and immoveable assets, and theirenvironment from water stress and hazards. By inference it also covers the inadequacy of options or abilities available forpeople to protect themselves against possible damage, or to recover from the consequences of natural phenomena withor without outside help. ‘Shang’ is the local word used for risk, defi ned by the community as the chance or probability ofdroughts and fl oods occurring and of suffering from adverse impacts from the effects of climate variability and /or changeor any hazard to which people or their livelihoods are exposed. ‘Gherik’ is the closest word describing adaptation. Theterm adaptation was interpreted as adjustment to expected climate variability and /or change (water stress or excess)without damage to the society and livelihoods and the ability to exploit the benefi cial opportunities of climate variabilityand /or change. In addition to these, in order to capture local perceptions of climate change and /or variability, the teamused the following indicators.• Changes in temperature• Rain at unusual times or lack of rain when expected2