A group of scientists have created a new roadmap that highlights the areas of the world most vulnerable to climate change. Scientists from Stanford University, the University of Queensland, and the Wildlife Conservation Society say the map is designed to assist stakeholders such as donors, environmental agencies, and government bodies.
The vulnerability map, published as part of a report in the journal Nature Climate Change, will help with conservation and restoration efforts. It could also be used for identifying protected areas and for deciding which are the best investments in mitigation and adaptation efforts.
The researchers suggest that the vulnerability map is new in the field. They argue that prior studies on climate change and its impacts have failed to incorporate how human activities will work in conjunction with climate change to impact different areas. This map, in contrast, reviews how intact different ecosystems are and how stable the ecosystem will be under climate change.
Dr James Watson, lead author of the study, says that as climate change will impact ecosystems in different ways, countries need to work smarter in adapting to climate change. The map, Watson says, will ‘bring clarity’ to a complicated issue where decisions must be made about limited resources for adaptation and mitigation.
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