Integral GIS - A conceptual framework for participatory adaptation planning by ldrose

This project is very interesting in that it goes beyond just technical considerations when assessing vulnerabilities. Different stakeholders involvement is crucial in particular for low-income communities and building on local knowledge. The implementation phase of this project needs to be more clearly articulated for the next iteration. It would be useful to make the proposal more accessible for visitors who may not be familiar/have the same background. It also needs to be more action-oriented and clearly demonstrate who is going to use this, how they are going to use it, etc.

To 2013urbanadaptationjudges -- Thank you for your valuable comments. This proposal describes a novel approach to adaptation planning. It is not a project per se, but rather a process that emphasizes stakeholder involvement with a dual focus on vulnerability assessment and social learning. It can be applied to a variety of scales and domains (i.e. community, regional, sectoral or institutional) so details such as scope and costs have simply been generalized but assume that geographic information systems (GIS) are already used internally for planning. The aim of the proposal is a facilitation of adaptation as a social process rather than a technical process. Measures of vulnerability typically include three components: exposure to climate change, sensitivity to its effects, and the capacity to adapt or cope with the effects. These components can be mapped at different scales to indicate the location of vulnerable people and places. Such information is useful for identifying where adaptation interventions may be necessary and beneficial. However, some important questions related to the concept of vulnerability often go unanswered, like what is actually meant by vulnerability, and who defines the criteria for determining vulnerability? My research with elderly populations in the Nordic countries suggests that vulnerability includes both objective and subjective characteristics, highlighting the importance of individuals' perceptions of their vulnerability to climate change. Some of the most common subjective evaluations I encounter are • Risk Appraisals: Is climate change a problem? Do I perceive myself as being vulnerable? • Adaptation Appraisals: What is my sense of self-efficacy? Perceptions of risk and self-efficacy are important factors at the individual and societal level in determining whether and how adaptation to climate change takes place. The framework I have proposed is therefore designed to connect objective indicators of vulnerability (i.e. exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) with subjective perceptions and individual experiences for the purpose of questioning initial assumptions about the adaptation situation, exploring multiple framings of an issue, generating new information, and galvanizing support for collective actions. The framework is based on qualitative GIS, which fuses qualitative methods and GIS in geographic research. Qualitative GIS is "constituted simultaneously as a practice and method" (Cope and Elwood 2009, p 197) and provides an opportunity to shift spatial assessments of vulnerability to climate change by incorporating multiple modes of inquiry. Integrating objective and subjective ways of knowing, and using techniques from both quantitative and qualitative traditions provide the opportunity and structure necessary for a diverse range of actors to come together to share knowledge, ideas and debate or deliberate over actions. Adapting to climate change requires iterative reconstructions of spatial and aspatial meanings in order to reach multiple audiences and achieve competing priorities. Integral GIS captures the dynamic and diverse circumstances that surround decision-making contexts. It provides a way of problematizing climate change from multiple rather than singular perspectives, thus facilitating more constructive negotiations around planning for a resilient future.

Congrats Idrose, best wishes.