Status and dynamics of climate resilience studies

Abstract der Sitzung

Climate resilience can be defined as the capacity of actors, economies, ecologies or social-ecological systems to cope with and adapt to hazardous events associated with climate change and to transform in ways that secure possibilities for future generations to do it alike. Increasing studies are warning that climate change is a major threat to human societies and is projected to cause even greater loss and damage in near future, even if the currently planned mitigation goals are met. Therefore, addressing climate resilience has become a key priority in fields like civil protection, urban planning, health care and others.

When looking at existing studies on climate resilience, a number of important scientific knowledge gaps persist. First of all, there is dichotomy between rather uncritical conceptualizations that first and foremost deal with methodological questions of how to apply the notion of resilience to empirical research and rather critical pieces that reject the notion of resilience as a whole for many different reasons. Against this background the question arises of how to conceptualize climate resilience so that both antagonistic positions can be overcome. Second, most of the existing studies produce worrying statements on a lack of resilience, while there is insufficient investigation on the knowledge system of climate resilience regarding its principles, mechanisms, and processes. Third, the geographical bias of climate resilience research dominantly focuses on big cities, river deltas, and coastal areas, where advanced facilities and governance are readily available. Forth, the interrelations between climate resilience and environmental health is still under-researched and needs special emphasis in near future. Last but not least, modelling and simulation tools are in high demand to detect the patterns and dynamics of climate resilience.

Against this background, this session aims to promote research exchanges of scholars from multiple disciplines on the status and dynamics of climate resilience studies. The relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Theoretical explorations of scientific frameworks and components in climate resilience studies.
• Reviews of the research progresses in the field of climate resilience
• Methodological development for assessing and/or modeling climate resilience
• Local case studies, regional- and global-level perspectives of social resilience to climate impacts
• Particular focus on the resilience to climate-related hazards, e.g. flood, heat, drought, sea level rise
• Comparison studies of climate resilience over space and time
• Social, economic, technological, and political strategies for resilience building at all scales of society
• Practical implementations of resilience measures in various sectors, e.g. food, water and agriculture, transportation infrastructure, energy system, human settlements
• Possible future scenarios for enhancing social resilience to climate impact