Adaptation Is a Nested Process

<p>2009 CSIRO Framing vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessment (Australia)</p>

<p>

&nbsp;

From a systems perspective, adaptation is a nested process – a vulnerability observed at one scale of the system may affect activities at another scale (Figure B). Similarly, adaptation responses implemented at one scale can, for better or worse, reverberate throughout the system. Meanwhile, the rate of such interactions and feedbacks may vary, on the order of hours to years, depending on the magnitude of the impact or adaptation response and the nature of the affected system.</p>

<p>

Figure B. The nested nature of climate change adaptation challenges. I indicates a local impact with cascading consequences at higher spatial scales. A indicates a high-level adaptation action that trickles down to affect local activities. The size of the arrows indicates the relative rate of transfer (i.e. large arrows are associated with rapid consequences to neighbouring scales, while small arrows are associated with more prolonged effects).</p>