Methods to Link Climate Impacts and Regional Sustainability

Abstract

This paper focuses on methodological development in research to study climate change impacts and regional sustainability. It starts with an introduction of a conceptual structure for identifying important attributes of regional sustainability and salient properties of climate change to guide research on regional impact assessment and adaptation options. This is followed by a brief review of some methods and approaches which have been used for climate impact assessment and policy evaluation. The paper then presents a research approach for climate change impact assessment and regional sustainability evaluation. In particular, an integrated approach is presented in some detail.

Keywords: Climate impact, sustainability, impact assessment