Adaptive capacity: What does it mean in the context of natural hazards?

<p>Many developing countries lind that their hopes for development are severly constrained by natural hazards. In some cases, the countries may also be constrained by internal conflict, weak institutions or other social or economic problems. In addition, many scholars argue that the forces of economic globalization are helping to create vulnerable communities throughout the world, but in panicular in poorer countries. Clearly, people and communities in these circumstances arc likely to lind it challenging coping with day-to-day existence, let alone adapt to climate change, which may not even be seen as a relevant issue. The field of natural hazards has much to offer in terms of policy experience and research output. Much effort has gone into examining all aspects of adaptation to hazards-or put more broadly, into examining vulnerability and resilience. Adaptation activity at both the "specific" and "generic" scale has been examined, although research has concentrated on specific measures. The relevance of this work for shon and long term adaptation to climate change is examined. It is likely to be high as climate change is most likely to be felt through an increase in weather related hazards. A suggestion is made for situations where neither generic nor specific approaches show promise.</p>