International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC): IDRC, NSERC, SSHRC

1. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Extremes in the Americas (VACEA) Vulnerabilidad y Adaptación a los Extremos Climáticos en las Américas • Los investigadores principales: • Dr. D. Sauchyn, Canada y Dr. F. Santibañez, Chile International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC): IDRC, NSERC, SSHRC

2. What is the overall goal of the program? The overall objective is to improve the understanding of the vulnerability of rural agricultural and indigenous communities to shifts in climate variability and to the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, and to engage governance institutions in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia in enhancing their adaptive capacity to reduce rural community vulnerability.

3. What are the research themes, related projects and key questions? • The characteristics and drivers of regional hydroclimatic variability and extreme events, and shifts in the frequency and intensity of inter-annual variability and extremes as a consequence of global climate change; • The past, current and future vulnerabilities of rural agricultural and indigenous populations to climate hazards and related stressors; • The impacts of climate variability and extremes on agricultural productivity and environmental services that support rural communities; and • The adaptive management practices and governance policies that improve adaptive capacity and reduce climate-related risk

4. What are the research themes, related projects and key questions?

5. What are the research themes, related projects and key questions?

6. What are the innovative features of the research program in relation to science and knowledge gaps? • Whereas most assessments of climate change impacts and vulnerability rely on scenarios of shifts or trends in average climate, our focus is the dominant climate hazards at local and regional scales: climate variability and extreme events. • Another focus is the climate sensitivity of agricultural productivity and environmental services, which is a major determinant of the vulnerability of rural communities • The VACEA project is a comparative assessment of adaptive practices and adaptation options in six river basins in five countries. • We will consider the influence of governance institutions and pubic policies on the vulnerability of rural people and their capacity to mediate risk and optimize opportunity.. • We will develop consistent methodologies for 1) the vulnerability assessment of rural communities, 2) probabilistic analysis of climate extremes, and 3) climate impact modeling. • An integrated risk assessment (probabilities and consequences) based on indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity.

8. Describe the rationale for site selection and what opportunities / challenges are foreseen for comparative research?

9. Rationale for site selection and opportunities / challenges? • Rural agricultural communities characterized by economic activities that are sensitive to climate variability and extreme events. • Indigenous populations include the Kainai First Nation (Canada), the Guaranies (Brazil) and Diaguitas (Chile). • Four of the six rivers (Chinchiná, Mendoza, Choapa, Oldman) are fed by snowmelt and rainfall runoff from mountainous headwaters. Droughts and floods are serious climate hazards in these basins. • The Araranguá River basin in southern Brazil has been recently repeatedly devastated by tropical storms, rarely experienced in the region prior to 2004. • In Canada, Swift Current Creek sheds runoff from a prairie landscape where dryland agriculture is dependent on spring and summer rain, while the Oldman River heads in the Rocky Mountains and is used primarily for irrigation. • Thus there are sufficient similarities and contrasts among the chosen river basins to enable a multi-national comparative study of the human and environmental dimensions of the impacts and adaptive responses to short-term climate variability and extreme events.

10. What training opportunities are planned? • All graduate students will directly participate in all project activities, including knowledge mobilization and field research, developing research skills in an applied and interdisciplinary context. • Most will be Research Fellows, with the obligation to complete masters or doctoral theses directly related to the project goals and objectives. • The exchange of graduate students among the participating universities will be strongly encouraged and supported, presenting significant opportunities for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary experiences. • While each student will undertake research in a specific discipline and case study site, they all will participate in the comparative analysis. • Fieldwork will be done in association with project partners and local institutions, giving the students significant experience in action-oriented and applied research. • They will be expected to collaborate in the dissemination of research results in a variety of forms, such as conferences and workshops where they will develop their own networks and public exposure.

11. What training opportunities are planned? An Internet-based training program building skills and competencies for assessing vulnerabilities and developing strategies for adaptation to climate change. This program is intended mainly for technical staff and officials of government agencies, NGOs and civil society organizations, as well as university professors in environmental programs and related disciplines. The content will be supplied by the interdisciplinary VACEA research team. The training modules will include case studies and analyses of the results and findings of the project. A team of specialists in distance education will advise the team of content experts and facilitate the process of instructional design and Web platform assembly. The Inter-American Organization for Higher Education (OUI-IOHE) will [provide support for the development and delivery of the training program with an estimated contribution of 10,000 USD.

12. What ethical research issues have you identified? "The most significant ethical research issues will arise in Theme 1. They will be the privacy and confidentiality of the information provided by respondents. To ensure proper ethics research standards, in all the research activities and in all the countries, the team will adopt and follow the guiding principles and basic standards identified in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Human."

13. What results do you expect to see emerge in relation to advancing the current state of knowledge and informing policies or practices? • new knowledge of regional climate variability and extremes and the impacts on rural livelihoods, ecological services and agriculture, and on existing sensitivities and adaptive capacity; • informing practices and policies that facilitate adaptation processes that manage risks and opportunities, and guide local and regional decision-making; • establish networks that enhance the adaptive capacity of governments, industry and civil society; • improve governments’ capacities to reduce the vulnerabilities of rural agricultural and indigenous communities; • indicators of vulnerability and indices of risk that can be used by communities and governance institutions to better prepare for future change and uncertainty; • training programs on climate change, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity; • a next generation of social and natural scientists will skills in inter-disciplinary and applied research

14. Los investigadores del proyecto