Climate Vulnerability Analysis
METHODS
Sustainable Development goals
When discussing climate vulnerability and addressing the harmful effects of climate change with solutions and recommendations, it is extremely important to keep the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in mind. Adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are features of a healthy, sustainable society that every leading organization should strive for. They were created along with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for countries to reference in order to ensure that any kind of development will lead towards a more equitable future with less poverty and hardship (United Nations, n.d.). Often we see that climate issues and social issues go hand-in-hand, affecting each other and creating endless cycles. Because of this, affiliates of the Serve-Learn-Sustain program at Georgia Tech understand that in order to mitigate social issues and create more peace, we must first tackle fundamentals like public health, public safety, and climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a branch of the United Nations that is dedicated to assessing and compiling research on the science of climate change. Since the IPCC does not conduct its own research, all IPCC reports are neutral and non-policy-prescriptive ("The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," n.d.). The IPCC plays a huge role in our project because it provides us with the most recent understandings of climate change, including information that is not yet known. This information is also given to policymakers to help them understand pressing and future risks of climate change.
Our methods follow IPCC Working Group II AR5 related to vulnerabilities and climate risk (IPCC, 2014). IPCC defines vulnerability as the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected and includes socio-economic factors as well as other elements such as sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt. To learn more about the IPCC, you can click the button to the left.
Geographic Information System mapping
The geographic information system (GIS) is the primary method of data collection and analysis for our project. Rooted in geography, this tool has the capability to organize multiple layers of information (such as census data, mortality rates, etc) in relation to the location of these rates, making it easy to find patterns between data ("What is GIS," n.d.). GIS is especially relevant for our work because we were able to collect important data specific to DeKalb County and visually display it onto various maps of DeKalb. With GIS, any kind of data can be easily read and understood by anyone, no matter their expertise.
