CLIMAS, "The Climate Assessment for the Southwest Project." Funded by NOAA-OGP, this highly interdisciplinary project housed at the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (ISPE) involves several UofA faculty from departments across campus and is housed at the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. This project assesses climate variability and longer-term climate change in terms of impacts on human and natural systems in the Southwest. Since 1998 a team of BARA researchers has been in charge of the "Assessment and monitoring of community vulnerability" component.

The concept of vulnerability, as used and developed by BARA researchers, emphasizes the social characteristics and configurations used by communities to face the challenges of the physical environment. It refers to both, the susceptibility to the negative socioeconomic impacts of environmental variability and the degree to which a community is capable of coping with, resisting, and recovering from the impacts of specific environmental events. From this perspective vulnerability is not a static concept; but varies both spatially and temporally, by livelihood system and socioeconomic group.

This project has resulted in several reports and publications which can be found in the CLIMAS publications.

An Assessment of Climate Vulnerability in the Middle San Pedro River Timothy J. Finan and Colin West (editors) Report #CL3-00, August 2000.

Building Partnerships with Native Americans in Climate-Related Research and Outreach Diane Austin, Sherri Gerlack, and Carolyn Smith Report #CL2-00, November 2000.

Fire in Indian Country: Two Case Studies in the Southwestern United States Diane Austin & Barbara Wolf Report #CL1-01, October 2001.

Pilot Stakeholder Assessment Report Nicholas Benequista and Jennifer Schrag James, with the assistance of Diane Austin, Andrew Gardner, and David Prytherch. February 1999.

Vulnerability to Climate Variability in the Farming Sector Marcela Vasquez-Leon, Colin Thor West, Barbara Wolf, Jane Moody, and Timothy J. Finan Report #CL1-02, December 2002.

2003 Vásquez-León, M, C. T. West, T. J. Finan. A Comparative Assessment of Climate Vulnerability: Agriculture and Ranching on Both Sides of the US-Mexico Border. Global Environmental Change. Vol. 13 (3): 159-173.).
Download PDF File (2003-Vasquez-Leon-etal.pdf, 0.3MB)

BARA Researchers:

T.J. Finan
M. Vasquez-Leon
Colin West
Sean Downey
Barbara Wolf
Nick Rattray