April 2015: The Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) has released an open access special issue of the Regional Environmental Change series, titled ‘Adaptation in climate change hotspots: Change under way in Africa and Asia.’

Funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), CARIAA aims to build the climate resilience of the poor in basins, deltas and semi-arid regions (climate change hotspots) where large numbers of the poor depend on climate-sensitive sectors for their livelihoods. CARIAA underlines that, while every country and region is unique, climate change has comparable biophysical and social implications within each hotspot. Therefore, CARIAA uses a comparative, interdisciplinary approach, linking researchers, policymakers and development practitioners in a network of four consortia to undertake research in the hotspots.

In 2012, CARIAA commissioned a set of background studies addressing the issue of the natural and social contexts. The studies are now being published as a series of seven peer-reviewed articles and an editorial in an open access special issue of Regional Environmental Change. Collectively, they address common issues across the three hotspots, namely: biophysical impacts of climate change; social vulnerability to climate change; and recent adaptation policies and initiatives. The studies also address methodologies for conducting similar background studies to inform work on climate change adaptation.

Now available online, individual articles address, inter alia: vulnerability to climate change in three hotspots in Africa and Asia; systematic review approaches for climate change adaptation research; a review of the biophysical impacts of climate change in three hotspot regions in Africa and Asia; a review of climate change adaptation policy and practice in deltas of Africa and South Asia; and adaptation policy and practice in densely populated glacier-fed river basins of South Asia. [Publication Webpage] [CARIAA Website]