What is Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA)?

A Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (CCVA) is a structured way to answer a simple but difficult question: “Who or what is most at risk if the climate keeps changing?” In coastal and marine settings, CCVAs look at how exposure to climate hazards, the sensitivity of ecosystems and people, and the capacity of communities to adapt all come together to create vulnerability. Instead of relying on anecdotes or single indicators, a CCVA combines many variables into a transparent, repeatable score.

The CCVA Platform you are using was designed for coastal managed access areas. It brings together biophysical data (like sea surface temperature anomalies or storm exposure), social and economic indicators (such as livelihood dependence on fisheries), and information about governance and adaptive capacity. By putting everything on a common 0–1 scale, it becomes possible to compare areas, track change over time, and identify where targeted action will have the greatest impact.

CCVA is not a prediction model or a replacement for local knowledge. Instead, it acts as a decision support tool: it helps practitioners, community leaders, and funders see patterns in the data, ask better questions, and prioritize adaptation measures. Throughout the platform you will see the same vulnerability logic applied consistently, so that maps, charts, and AI-generated insights all tell a coherent story about risk and resilience.