Climate change and coastal communities: Designing an integrated framework for vulnerability, adaptation and resilience

Abstract

Climate change poses significant threats to coastal communities, particularly in the Global South, where limited adaptive capacities and weak coping mechanisms exacerbate vulnerability. Coastal areas experience hazards, impacting both natural environments and coastal livelihoods. This study reviews the concepts of vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience within the context of disaster risk reduction using a systematic narrative approach. The study reviews theoretical underpinnings and presents a plausible approach to understanding vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience in the coastal communities of the Global South. The Integrated Framework for Climate Change Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Resilience (IFCCVAR) addresses issues related to coastal hazards, while identifying the role of disaster risk reduction in reducing coastal vulnerabilities. This framework provides a more radical means to achieve climate change adaptations and resilience outcomes, at the local community level, with a particular relevance in the Global South, a region that continues to suffer disproportionately from climate change hazards. The IFCCVAR presents a novel contribution by linking the concepts of vulnerability, adaptation and resilience and presents a more comprehensive means of framing and analysing climate change impacts. It provides a novel overarching framework linking climate change vulnerability, adaptation and resilience particularly in a generation where the global sphere is shifting towards sustainable cities and communities.