Towards a resilience indicator framework for making climate-change adaptation decisions

• Published in: Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change Vol. 19; no. 8; pp. 1295 - 1312
• Main Authors: Engle, Nathan L, de Bremond, Ariane, Malone, Elizabeth L, Moss, Richard H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer-Verlag 01.12.2014; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adaptation; Atmospheric Sciences; Climate adaptation; Climate change; Climate Change Management and Policy; community development; Decision making; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Economic development; Economic indicators; Emissions; Environmental Management; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Original Article; Pilot projects; R&D; Research & development; space and time; Sustainable development; Climate change; Multiple scales; Development; Integrated decision making; Indicators; Resilience; Adaptation
• ISSN: 1381-2386; 1573-1596
• DOI: 10.1007/s11027-013-9475-x

Activities are already underway within the development community to improve climate-change adaptation decision making. In these and related efforts, a focus on building resilience is an important objective, one that resonates with development objectives. Compiling and applying indicators will help development practitioners consider resilience in projects, plans, and decision making. Exactly how to do this is a challenging, but important task. Drawing on diverse methods in the literature, this paper identifies factors important to understanding the evolution of resilience over time and space, and suggests a framework for developing indicators that analysts might select as useful for particular places or sectors. The paper lays the groundwork for an assessment framework that can make future development and adaptation choices more resilient. The framework is intended as a starting point for wider discussions of factors that contribute to building resilience and thus provide the basis to develop a toolkit of metrics and approaches. These discussions will need to bridge research on climate-change adaptation and resilience with practice.