The possible impacts of global climate change on different countries has led to the development and ratification of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and has a strong bearing on the future sustainable development of developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The preparation of analytical methodologies and tools for carrying out assessments of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change is therefore of prime importance to these countries. Such assessments are needed to both fulfill the reporting requirements of the countries under the FCCC as well as to prepare their own climate change adaptation and mitigation plans. The vulnerability and adaptation assessment guidelines prepared by the U.S. Country Studies Program bring together all the latest knowledge and experience from around the world on both vulnerability analysis as well as adaptation methodologies. It is currently being applied successfully by scientists in over fifty countries from all the regions of the globe. This guidance is being published to share it with the wider scientific community interested in global climate change issues. This guidance document has two primary purposes: • To assist countries in making decisions about the scope and methods for their vulnerability and adaptation assessments, • To provide countries with guidance and step-by-step instructions on each of the basic elements of vulnerability and adaptation assessments.

Bangladesh faces many challenges. So long it has been mainly the traditional ones of socio economic development and eradication of poverty. Environment as a major factor in this process has only recently entered the scene. But even before environmental considerations in the development process has become the normal practice, the spectre of climate change has reared its ugly head. While Bangladesh is not unique among developing countries in being at the receiving end regarding the causes and consequences of climate change, both in the literal and allegorical sense of the term, the fact remains that it has made the prospects for sustainable socio-economic development in the country much more complex and formidable than before. Both for her own sake and the sake of the global community at large, therefore, Bangladesh has to initiate actions at various levels to face the challenge from now on. The present study is a part of that process. In 1996, the Governments of USA and Bangladesh together decided to initiate a comprehensive study on climate change in Bangladesh. A unique consortium of public and non-governmental research organisations with support from the relevant administrative arms of the Government carried out the study over 1996 and 1997. The report has been accepted by the Government and several of its recommendations are in the process of implementation. While the direction of climate change is broadly certain, its details leave much scope for speculation and interpretation.

There is now strong evidence that the earth's climate is changing rapidly, due mainly to human activities. Increasing temperatures, sea-level rises, changes in precipitation patterns and extreme events are expected to increase a range of health risks, from the direct effects of heat-waves, floods and storms, to more suitable conditions for the transmission of important infectious diseases, to impacts on the natural systems and socioeconomic sectors that ultimately underpin human health. Much of the potential health impact of climate change can, however, be avoided through a combination of strengthening key health system functions and improved management of the risks presented by a changing climate. The critical first step in this process is to carry out a vulnerability and adaptation assessment. This allows countries to assess which populations are most vulnerable to different kinds of health effects, to identify weaknesses in the systems that should protect them, and to specify interventions to respond. Assessments can also improve evidence and understanding of the linkages between climate and health within the assessment area, serve as a baseline analysis against which changes in disease risk and protective measures can be monitored, provide the opportunity for building capacity, and strengthen the case for investment in health protection. WHO has responded to this global demand by building on past guidance and technical tools to outline a flexible process for vulnerability and adaptation assessment. In 2009, the WHO Regional Office for the Americas and WHO prepared draft guidance for this process, which was pilot-tested in studies across all WHO Regions. In July 2010, representatives of ministries of health from 15 countries came together in Costa Rica with WHO and subject area experts to share their experiences and provide feedback on how to improve the guidance for the conduct of vulnerability assessments. This document is the result of this process. It is intended not as a final, definitive guide but as an important part of an evolving set of resources that will support effective and evidence-based action to protect health from climate change.

Martin Parry University College, London, UK The 13 country studies collected in this re Adaptations Assessment published by the port represent the first of what is likely to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change become a worldwide, country-by-country (Carter et al., 1994) as an agreed technical estimate of the likely impacts of, and appro set of scientific methods for climate impact priate adaptations to, greenhouse-gas-in assessment and has written its own guidance duced global climate change. document, Guidance for Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment (U.S. CSP, 1994). Under the U.N. Framework Convention on The u.S. Country Studies Program devel Climate Change (UNFCCC), signatories oped the Guidance and other reviews of agreed to two near-term actions and one ma methodology into a nonspecialist set of jor subsequent one. The two near-term ac workbooks for use at the country level, tions are to make annual estimates of the which, backed up by advice from experi emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases, enced scientists from the United States and which are now being reported as part of a other countries, enabled local scientists to country-by-country inventory developed by conduct their own vulnerability and adapta the U.N. Environment Programme, the Or tion assessments.

With effective climate change mitigation policies still under development, and with even the most aggressive proposals unable to halt climate change immediately, many decision makers are focusing unprecedented attention on the need for strategies to adapt to climate changes that are now unavoidable. The effects of climate change will touch every corner of the world's economies and societies; adaptation is inevitable. The remaining question is to what extent humans will anticipate and reduce undesired consequences of climate change, or postpone response until after climate change impacts have altered ecological and socioeconomic systems so significantly that opportunities for adaptation become limited. This book summarizes a National Research Council workshop at which presentations and discussion identified specific needs associated with this gap between the demand and supply of scientific information about climate change adaptation.

The IPCC (2007) warned that the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) basin will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding, and that the region’s poverty would reduce its adaptation capacity. This book investigates autonomous adaptation using a multi-method technique comprising PRA and a questionnaire survey applied in the case study area ‘Islampur’ Upazila in Bangladesh. The study has four key approaches. First, it reviews the flood literature for Bangladesh from 1980 to 2014. Second, it examines farmers' crop adaptation processes in a case study area at Islampur, Bangladesh. Third, it assesses the vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) in response to three extreme flood events (EFEs). Fourth, the book assesses the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation in response to EFEs. The results show that Bangladeshi farmers are highly resilient to EFEs, but the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation (FEACA) on marginal farmers are large. The book contributes to current knowledge by filling three important research gaps as follows, 1) farmers’ autonomous crop adaptation processes in response to various types of extreme floods; 2) methodological contribution for assessing vulnerability and adaptation through PRA; and 3) the economic consequences of the failure effects of autonomous crop adaptations. “This book provides a good account of ‘autonomous adaptation’ and its impact on fl ood vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. Anyone wishing to fully understand the impact of climate change should read the book.” Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate, Yunus Centre, Bangladesh