Dr. Tim Williamson

Research Economist – climate change impacts and adaptation
Natural Resources Canada / Canadian Forest Service

Assessing the Vulnerability of Communities to Climate Change

The well-being of many communities in Canada is closely tied to surrounding climate sensitive forests. It is important, therefore, to understand the extent to which forest-based communities are potentially vulnerable to climate change as a result of their close association with forests. There is, however, no simple or universal answer to this question because the degree and nature of community vulnerabilities will vary from place to place. Moreover, to date there has been a lack of integrated assessment methodologies for assessing potential impacts at community relevant scales. This has resulted in high levels of uncertainty and significant knowledge gaps about impacts at locally relevant scales. These gaps pose barriers to development of adaptation strategies. The work of Tim and colleagues at NRCan/CFS and with the Community of Vanderhoof is helping to address these gaps by developing new methods and approaches for integrated assessment, and by demonstrating these methods in case study communities such as Vanderhoof.  

Recent publications that discuss and address some of these limitations in the context of forest-based communities in the central region of British Columbia include:

Williamson, T.B.; Price, D.T.; Beverly, J.L.; Bothwell, P.M.; Frenkel, B.; Park, J.; Patriquin, M.N. 2008. Assessing potential biophysical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change on forest-based communities: a methodological case study. Nat. Res. Can., Can. For. Serv., North. For. Cent., Edmonton, AB. Inf. Rep. NOR-X-415E

Williamson, T.B.; Price, D.T.; Beverly, J.L.; Bothwell, P.M.; Parkins, J.R.; Patriquin, M.N.; Pearce, C.V.; Stedman, R.C.; Volney, W.J.A. 2007. A framework for assessing vulnerability of forest-based communities to climate change. Nat. Res. Can., Can. For. Serv., North. For. Cent., Edmonton, AB. Inf. Rep. NOR-X-414E

These documents are available from the CFS bookstore at the following web page:

http://bookstore.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca  

More information about climate change can be found at http://ess.nrcan.gc.ca/cli/index_e.php  

Contact:
twilliam@nrcan.gc.ca