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10 - Evaluating vulnerability assessments of the HERO study sites

from Part IV

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2010

Brent Yarnal
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Colin Polsky
Affiliation:
Clark University, Massachusetts
James O'Brien
Affiliation:
Kingston University, London
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Summary

Introduction

As described in preceding chapters, one of the overarching HERO research activities was to establish a set of methodological protocols for vulnerability assessments. Within the methodological research plan were two principal activities, as introduced in Chapter 8: the development and testing of a Rapid Vulnerability Assessment methodology, and the development and testing of an Vulnerability Assessment Evaluation methodology, designed to validate, or assess the accuracy, of our work. Chapter 9 summarized our efforts on the former task; this chapter presents the results of the latter task. Accordingly, at the end of this chapter, we will be in a position to posit some synthetic conclusions about vulnerability in and across the four HERO sites.

Accuracy assessments are difficult to conduct in many research domains, but they are particularly challenging in the domain of vulnerability because the multidimensional nature of this concept makes it difficult for an individual researcher to observe and measure the principal variable of interest. The multi-site context, where the number of places and researchers is larger, amplifies this challenge. Clearly, then, conducting vulnerability research in a networked environment will present particular challenges to validating the research. In this light, a methodology for validating – or what we term evaluating – our research findings is needed.

Methods and data

There are two datasets involved in the application of our Vulnerability Assessment Evaluation methodology: the reference dataset and the validation dataset.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sustainable Communities on a Sustainable Planet
The Human-Environment Regional Observatory Project
, pp. 209 - 228
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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References

Harrington, L. M. B., 2001. Attitudes towards climate change: major emitters in southwestern Kansas. Climate Reseach 16(2): 113–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, R. E., Yarnal, B., Neff, R., Bord, R., Wiefek, N., Reenock, C., Shudak, R., Jocoy, C. L., Pascale, P., and Knight, C. G., 1999. Weather and climate extremes, climate change, and planning: views of community water system managers in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 35(6): 1411–1419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorrensen, C., Polsky, C., and Neff, R., 2005. The Human–Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Project: undergraduate research findings from four study sites. Geographical Bulletin 47(2): 65–72.Google Scholar

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