TITLE:
Case Study: Reviewing Methods of Assessing Community Adaptive Capacity for Jefferson County, Texas
AUTHORS:
Faye Anderson, Najla N. J. Al-Thani
KEYWORDS:
Climate Change, Resilience, Risk, Jefferson County, Texas, Flooding, Adaptive Capacity, Upper Scale System
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Climate Change,
Vol.5 No.1,
March
4,
2016
ABSTRACT: With the increased attention on community sustainability and resilience, different poles have developed voicing similarities and/or differences of the two concepts. This study quantifies adaptive capacity of Jefferson County, Texas, one of the coastal communities at the Gulf of Mexico having some of the worse adverse effects. Review of existing methods is presented. Analyses were conducted for the last ten years: from 2005 to 2014. Interestingly, statistical analyses showed that the County’s socio-economic profile or indicators have not changed throughout the ten years, but the environmental, institutional, and infrastructure indicators have. Focusing on one location magnifies the adaptive capacity of Jefferson County, the temporal aspect of both perspectives, and the relevance of existing methods to this community with its peculiarities. Future assessments need to be based on primary data collected through participatory engagement of all stakeholders. This calls for attempts to quantify adaptive capacity using the comparatively more challenging deductive reasoning, which would allow for incorporation of more risks and thus higher readiness.