Abstract

Climate change is expected to impact biodiversity, global temperatures and the water cycle resulting in changes that affect communities in the social system. The capacity to adapt to such climatic fluctuations will vary across social groups, depending on the group's socio-economic and demographic characteristics. This thesis constructs a methodology that bridges existing approaches to study adaptation, providing an alternative that includes high level deterministic approaches to quantify adaptive capacity (AC) and case-by-case strategies to enhance region-specific AC. The proposed methodology consists of an exploratory model and a principal component analysis. The goal of the methodology is to create a sub-national level AC characterization to prioritize domestic policy within a country and to understand the most important factors affecting a region's AC. In addition, the methodology incorporates an important challenge of developing countries: collection, processing, and use of information. To illustrate the methodology, a case study focused on three regions of Peru: Ayacucho, Loreto and Piura. The results of the methodology show that Ayacucho, a region facing low temperatures and glacier retreat, has the lowest AC and thus has priority in the AC strengthening process. The main factors affecting Ayacucho's AC include infrastructure, poverty and low economic capacity. Loreto, with changes in biodiversity and ambient temperatures, has the second highest AC to climate change as a result of a diverse population and low literacy levels. To increase Loreto's AC more transcultural education and family planning might be required. Finally, Piura has the highest AC due to its high economic capacity, but this is affected by the region's social inequality. Minimizing poverty is a critical measure to support and increase AC of this region, which faces increased precipitation, flooding and disease contraction and contagion.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Climatic changes--Social aspects--Peru; Global warming--Social aspects--Peru

Publication Date

11-1-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Sustainable Systems (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Sustainable Systems (GIS)

Advisor

Babbitt, Callie

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in December 2013. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: QC981.8.C5 M48 2011

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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