Climate Action 2009-2010

TECHNOLOGY
Competencies of the partners Value-added services Users
Spatial technologies Observations Regions
Communication Evolution scenarios Regional and local-scale territorial
Ocean and coast Simulations communities
Climate and weather Cost-benefit analyses Businesses
Development and territorial GHG balance Citizen associations and
planning adjustment Integrated Territorial Climate Plan organisation
Action programme
integrate the climate in their territorial management
by improving accessibility and by disseminating and
exchanging updated information on how to use them
based on existing or developing territorial experiences.
Furthermore, this hub expertise domain covers a large
panel of issues thanks to the dynamic developing network.
ClimSAT, a methodological charter to assess and
map vulnerabilities to climate change
ClimSAT’s mission is to facilitate and guide the regions
in sourcing and using satellite and other geo-spatial
information and related management technologies to
assess the physical impact of climate change and the
associated vulnerabilities in a given territory.
The climate change vulnerability approach developed by
ClimSAT consists of three-dimensional visual models
expressing the incidence of current climatic conditions
on the functioning and sustainability of local ecological
environment (land, water, ecosystems, forest and
protected areas, etc…), economy (agriculture, fisheries,
industries, rural and urban service infrastructures,
etc..) and society (living and working conditions, health,
education, social and cultural services, etc…). By further
integrating two extreme IPCC climate change scenarios
(most optimistic and most pessimistic) in the climatic
vulnerability modeling systems, future climate risks and
hotspots induced by global warming will be evidenced in
each regional territory and easily qualified and quantified.
Different adaptive as well as mitigation options can be
visualised and corresponding projects evaluated. This
approach aims to ensure the full participation of local
actors of the specific climate change vulnerabilities
of their territory and, by using intuitive visualisation
ClimSAT basic maps for the study of the metropolitan area
of Montevideo in Uruguay.
techniques, to facilitate consensus-building, decisionmaking,
resource mobilisation and decision acceptance.
MAPPING THE TERRITORIAL
VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Given the complexity and the numerous relevant pieces
of information needed to express possible adaptation
and mitigation opportunities, maps appear to be the
most efficient tool to communicate results. Vulnerability
maps allow analysing and developing possible options in
a universal and directly accessible manner.
Remote sensing is the key tool to complete the inventory
of the data needed for the assessment and mapping
process. Image processing can lead to a large range of
multidisciplinary information, from a simple red-greenblue
view of the area of interest to a representation of the
state of hydrical stress of a crop field, the classification
of the land cover, or the state of the soil moisture.
Such reliable information is very useful to complete
the set of available data needed for each territorial
assessment and mapping; and even more so in
developing countries that are, in most cases, the most
vulnerable to climate change.
PROMOTE AND DEVELOP ACCESS TO AND
USE OF DOWNSCALED CLIMATIC DATA
Helping territories to plan efficient planning response
to climate change requires understanding the spatial
organisation of climate impacts that are highly sitespecific.
Therefore, future climate data of high spatial
resolution are needed. Furthermore, the four types of
scenarios developed by IPCC are currently the most
commonly applied to simulate future climatic trends.
The use of the most pessimistic A1F1 and the most
optimistic B2 scenarios are thus pertinent to visualise
the panel of needed adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Depending on the type of impacts the territory is facing,
more or less high temporal resolution is employed in
order to study the physical phenomenon.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool that
shows features and feature relationships on a chosen
surface. Most of all, type of data can be georeferenced
and used to construct a map. The information can then
be used again to support queries, analysis, crossing
with other information and, at last, editing the layers of
information. This clear representation of the territory
allows identifying the “hotspot” where attention should
be focused according to one set of indicators or queries.
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© ClimSAT
HELPING THE TERRITORY TO DEVELOP
THEIR CAPACITY BUILDING
Tackling climate change is a long-term process that has
to be appropriated by local actors. The sustainability of
development projects, as outlined in the Declaration de
VISIT: WWW.CLIMATEACTIONPROGRAMME.ORG