Assessing coastal areas’ vulnerability to the impacts of climate change is made easy with a tool developed by a group of marine researchers.
The tool, known as the Integrated Coastal Sensitivity, Exposure, and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change (ICSEA Change), will help local communities in the coastal areas determine whether they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on the basis of impending threats.
Using a highly participatory approach and a simple framework, ICSEA Change determines the effects of climate change in a particular community. These are on the basis of three factors: sensitivity, exposure or threat of exposure, and lack of adaptive capacity.
The presence of any two factors in a coastal community would mean moderate vulnerability, while the presence of all three factors would mean high vulnerability to climate change impact.
Changes in the beach condition due to erosion and flooding, as well as the condition of coral reefs, seagrass and mangroves, among other things, determine coastal communities’ sensitivity to climate change. This is because a natural coral reef, even with very little coral left, or a narrow fringe of mangroves, can still reduce the strength of waves hitting the coast, the study said.
The health of coastline habitats, water quality, habitat restoration efforts, and human settlements and their activities and characteristics, on the other hand, are among the factors considered in determining the community’s level of exposure and adaptive capacity to climate change impacts.
With ICSEA Change, coastal communities will be able to understand their relative vulnerabilities to climate change and their effects such as sea level rise, ocean warming, increased storminess, extreme rainfalls, and sedimentation of the country’s coastal waters.
ICSEA Change was developed under the Remote Sensing Information for Living Environments and Nationwide Tools for Sentinel Ecosystems in our Archipelagic Seas (RESILIENT SEAS), a program funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
Coordinated and monitored by the Marine Resources Division of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), the program is expected to benefit 54 million Filipinos or nearly 60 percent of the national population which are dependent on marine resources for their food and livelihood.
The program involves the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, UP Visayas, Bicol University, Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro), Mindanao State University (Naawan), and De La Salle University (DLSU).