Natural Resource-Based Socio-Economic System of Local Communities: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change

Local rural communities challenge due to regional disparities on conditions and features of economic, infrastructural, social development etc. Most rural communities are strengthened by natural and environmental bases for economic development compared to urban areas. But during the last two decades they face the global challenge – climate change, which takes a risk of socio-economic system (SES), based on natural resources use. Agriculture and natural-based activities are the most vulnerable systems to climate change. This study aims to test the possibilities for Ukrainian local rural communities to adapt their SES, which are based mainly on natural resources use, toward the building of more resilient to climate change systems. Here, we develop the framework for assessment of vulnerability of community’ SES to climate change, using the integrated indicator-based approach. We estimate the Vulnerability Index for six rural communities, describing the integrated level and by subsystems level of vulnerability. Our assessment confirms the high vulnerability of agriculture and natural ecosystem to climate change. It is a crucial challenge for further socio-economic development of the rural SES with the monofunctional economy which is based on natural resources use. In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the high vulnerability of the social system and infrastructure for most studied communities. Understanding the vulnerable subsystems of community’ SES ensure timely response and the development of concrete policy actions at the community and state levels. In this study we substantiate the hotlist of actions for the most vulnerable subsystems.