Running as a thread through the entire volume, linking together the sectoral studies, the analytic methods and the case examples, are conceptual models of the interaction of climate and society, definitions of climate variability and change, and assumptions as to the state of knowledge concerning climate processes. These concepts and definitions, presented by Kates in Chapter 1 and Hare in Chapter 2, provide to all authors a common vocabulary for describing climatic events, consequences and human responses, a common framework for linking climate and societal impacts, and a common interest in both industrialized and developing countries.
Within this framework, climate variability and change provide three types of events of interest: extreme weather events, persistent periods, and little ages. These events impact on exposed social, areal, or activity units of human or ecological organization, leading to ordered biophysical, social, or ecological consequences. In turn these impacts are modified by cultural adaptation and adjustment responses that may amplify or dampen the consequences of climate events. In the simplest of frameworks, the links between events, units and consequences of climate impact models are linear. In the more realistic and complex interaction model framework, causality is jointly determined by climate and society. As with all such frameworks, relationships are linked in ordered flows that belie the reality and simultaneity of the real world.
The degree to which the authors employ these common concepts, concerns and vocabulary differs, as considerable translation of disciplinary or sectoral practice or tradition is often required. Nonetheless, all have tried, and brief editorial introductions to the major sections guide the reader to the connections between a particular chapter and the overarching schema of climate impact assessment.
The overview on research by Riebsame in Chapter 3 serves a different function, providing a common conceptual and historical review of climate-society research organized under four key concepts: climate as setting, as determinant, as hazard, and as resource. Riebsame's view that research, both past and future, flows directly from these different, but not exclusive, concepts of climate-society interaction serves not only to organize the diverse literature of this interdisciplinary field, but to analyze its structure as well.
The final overview, Chapter 4 by Maunder and Ausubel, links directly to the rest of the volume by posing the question of how one begins to undertake specific climate impact studies. They suggest that one major way to begin is by assessing the overall climate sensitivity of activities, places, or groups of interest. Past experience and current methods for determining overall sensitivity are presented. It emerges from many studies that agriculture and water resources are activities and sectors that are clearly sensitive to climate. Methods appropriate to the study of these and other sensitive sectors follow in Part II of this volume.
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