Vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change
Project: Vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change
Client: GPSO – Grand Paris Seine et Oise
Categories: Vulnerability assessment, environmental economics
Start date: January 2018
End date: In progress
Our partner: ACTERRA
OBJECTIVE
To understand the territory’s vulnerabilities regarding climate change and to evaluate the cost of inaction: what is the societal cost of increasing temperatures, more heat waves and droughts, more frequent and more intense flooding in the territory of Grand Paris Seine et Oise?
OUR APPROACH
Economic evaluation enables local stakeholders to enhance their undertanding of local impacts and risks, and facilitates discussions, priorization and decision making.
In response to our client’s request and considering local knowledge and data, we proposed a simple, easily understandable and appropriable method (avoiding the “black box effect”) for evaluating the cost of inaction at a very local level.
The analysis was performed at two levels:
– For the entire territory: we performed economic evaluations, based on literature, local data and climate projections, for health, agriculture, energy, flooding, and clay cracking.
– For three specific areas, we conducted extensive interviews and performed detailed analysis of the impacts of climate change on fluvial navigation, the automobile industry, and the transportation network.
RESULTS
Economic data on the principal impacts of climate change on the territory, which will be useful for involving stakeholders and performing cost-benefit analysis for adaptation options.
Clear and traceable methods that can be reused by the local government.
