The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) is a rapid assessment tool to systematically assess climate change vulnerability.  It was initially developed for assessing World Heritage (WH) properites, but its applications have since been expanded (see "Beyond World Heritage" section below).  A modified process was also applied to an area that at the time was being nominated as WH (The Flow Country, Scotland) but has since been inscribed.

Preparations are underway for further CVI applications, with additional proposals from most continents.

Assessment of the peat landscape of The Flow Country, Scotland image
Assessment of the peat landscape of The Flow Country, Scotland

What are the advantages of the CVI?

Applications of the CVI have demonstrated that it:

  1. Is a rapid assessment tool able to be consistently applied to:
    • the full range of World Heritage properties (natural, cultural, and mixed),
    • indigenous land and sea country, and
    • other heritage locations (see Beyond World Heritage, below).
  2. Assesses the physical and ecological impacts of climate change on a property’s OUV, but also provides a high-level assessment of the economic, social, and cultural consequences of climate change for communities that depend on the WH property.
  3. Is scientifically rigorous, systematic, and comprehensive yet not overly complex (balancing scientific and political credibility with practicality at the WH property level).
  4. Is repeatable, allowing for assessments over time to assess trends (with a rapidly changing climate, the ability to reassess vulnerability at periodic intervals in the light of new scientific understanding can guide updates of management actions).
  5. Is transparent, enabling others to see exactly how the assessment was derived.
  6. Puts climate change into context, i.e., climate change is becoming a dominant threat to many WH values but is only one of many cumulative pressures affecting WH properties in general.
  7. Provides opportunity to identify adaptation strategies in the face of potential impacts, with a consistent methodology that can support applications for funding and other resources.
  8. Assists in better understanding by local and Indigenous communities and other users about climate change and its impacts (therefore it is a key engagement tool).
  9. Assists other WH properties with similar values but less expertise to benefit from pre-existing assessments (taking a thematic approach).
  10. Is standardised, so that it can ultimately become part of WH processes (such as State of Conservation reports, periodic reporting, and nominations).
  11. Provides a systematic and repeatable methodology to:
    • determine the Key Values of an area and assess their current condition and recent trend, and
    • identify and document other Significant Property Values (SPVs).

Other innovative ways to assess climate impacts are also being developed by the CVI Team.  Thematic approaches can be used to accelerate the availability of information to more properties.  To-date, these include a cultural thematic framework developed for the Indian subcontinent; a natural thematic analysis of properties in the UNESCO Africa Region; and an attribute-based thematic approach assessing WH seagrass habitats.  Another innovative approach describes the use of satellite imagery to systematically evaluate the land use/land cover within and around protected areas to help understand how climate change might threaten heritage

The CVI was also the focus of an online training course in Africa (see CVI-Africa), and its application is now spreading further into non-WH applications (see Beyond World Heritage - below).  The CVI is increasingly becoming acknowledged, both within Australia and internationally, as a systematic way to assess the impacts of climate change upon a range of heritage properties in a transparent and repeatable way.

Testimonials

Considerable endorsement has been received from those who have been involved in applying the CVI. For example:

“The CVI takes a different approach from other vulnerability assessments because along with vulnerability of the property, it also incorporates the vulnerability of the community, which is such an important aspect of World Heritage. Historic Environment Scotland is proposing to repeat the CVI application as part of the five-yearly management review cycle for each World Heritage property in Scotland.”  Ewan Hyslop, Head of Technical Research & Science, Historic Environment Scotland.

”… the [Aldabra] report looks brilliant. The whole CVI process has been eye-opening and extremely valuable for our whole team. We particularly appreciated how inclusive and participatory the exercise was. A big thank you from me for the process and the final result.” Nancy Bunbury,  Director of Research and Conservation, Seychelles Islands Foundation, Republic of Seychelles.

Further testimonials about the CVI are available here.

Beyond World Heritage

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a major threat to heritage globally and there is growing interest in trialling the CVI methodology in other areas of significance (e.g., RAMSAR sites, Man and Biosphere Reserves, National Trust properties, Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas).

The CVI has already been or is being adapted for other locations and areas of significance, including:

  • Indigenous land/sea country – The CVI process has formed the basis for a partnership with an Australian Indigenous group to assess impacts of climate change upon their values, traditional practices and protocols of significance to their community. Several workshops have provided critical learnings on how to effectively engage with First Nations communities about climate change and different approaches that are needed to ensure relevance.
  • Systematically assessing environmental context – Systematically assessing the surroundings of properties, particularly small cultural heritage sites, is important to effectively consider potential impacts of climate change upon heritage.
  • Local government areas – Several municipal areas and groups of local government areas have expressed an interest in trialling the CVI approach – one proposal is currently being undertaken in northern Australia.
  • Man and Biosphere Reserves – In addition to CVI applications for individual locations, the thematic approach mentioned above is ideally suited to regional and thematic networks of biosphere reserves.

All these applications of the CVI approach have the potential to build international, regional, sub-regional and ecosystem-specific cooperation.