An Actor-Oriented and Context-Specific Framework for Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation

Responding to recently identified challenges in the comprehensive evaluation of climate change adaptation, we suggest an assessment framework that incorporates a multidisciplinary viewpoint on adaptation. The framework combines three major components to link system-oriented concepts of risk and vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change with actor-oriented approaches of decision-making: the risk context, individual decision-making, and adaptation assessment. We have thereby developed an approach that is embedded in context and scale, takes an actor-oriented perspective, and is applicable to multiple evaluation approaches. We tested the framework empirically with a mixed-methods approach to assess adaptation in flood-exposed areas of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. This has shown the distinct meanings of good adaptation and uncovered mismatches in choices for adaptation strategies and evaluations of those strategies across different actors hindering sustainable development.