Abstract
The capacity to adapt is a critical element of the process of adaptation: it is the vector of resources that represent the asset base from which adaptation actions can be made.
Adaptive capacity can in theory be identified and measured at various scales, from the individual to the nation.
The assessment of uncertainty within such measures comes from the contested knowledge domain and theories surrounding the nature of the determinants of adaptive capacity and the human action of adaptation.
While generic adaptive capacity at the national level, for example, is often postulated as being dependent on health, governance and political rights, and literacy, and economic well-being, the determinants of these variables at national levels are not widely understood.
We outline the nature of this uncertainty for the major elements of adaptive capacity and illustrate these issues with the example
of a social vulnerability index for countries in Africa.
To cite this article:W.N. Adger, K. Vincent, C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).
2004 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.
摘要
適應能力是一個關鍵因素適應的過程：它是向量的資源，代表了資產的基地，可適應行動。
適應能力在理論上可以識別和衡量尺度不同，從個人到國家。
在評估這些措施的不確定性來自有爭議的知識領域和理論周圍的性質的決定因素的適應能力和適應人的行動。
雖然一般的適應能力在國家一級，例如，通常被假定為依賴於健康，治理和政治權利，掃盲和經濟福祉的決定因素，這些變量在國家水平沒有得到廣泛的理解。
我們勾勒出大自然的這種不確定性為主要內容的適應能力，並說明這些問題的例子
一個社會的脆弱性指數的國家在非洲。
舉這篇文章：W.N.阿傑，K.文森特，C. R.地球科學337（2005年）。
2004年琪DES科學。由Elsevier出版SAS。保留所有權利。
Yet evidence from traditional societies demonstrates that the capacity to adapt in many senses depends more on experience, knowledge and dependency on weather-sensitive resources.
然而，證據表明，從傳統的社會適應能力在許多意義上取決於更多的經驗，知識和依賴於天氣敏感的資源。
In this area of research, then, it is apparent that uncertainty in the science of adaptation stems more from contested underlying theories of behaviour, politics, and risk than of data and observation.
Hence adaptive capacity is a scale-dependent concept and adaptation itself can best be conceptualized as a characteristic
of an adapting system [45].
The challenge for emerging insights into adaptation is how to characterize this adaptive capacity in a meaningful sense and to find generic determinants of adaptive capacity at various scales to build predictive models of its evolution into the future.
在這方面的研究，那麼，很明顯，在科學不確定性的適應莖多從有爭議的行為的基本理論，政治和風險比數據和觀察。
因此，適應能力是一個規模相關的概念和適應自己才能最好地概念化為特徵的適應系統 [45]。
新興的見解的挑戰是如何將適應這一特點適應能力在真正意義上的一般決定因素，並找到了在不同尺度的適應能力，以建立預測模型，其演變到未來。
Adaptive capacity is a vector of resources and assets that represent the asset base from which adaptation actions and investments can be made.
Within the IPCC Third Assessment Report, it is recognized that this capacity may be latent and be important only when sectors or systems are exposed to the actual or expected climate stimuli [49].
Vulnerability to climate change is therefore made up of a number of components including exposure to impacts, sensitivity, and the capacity to adapt.
Adaptive capacity is, therefore, a component of vulnerability [34,48].
Adaptive capacity has diverse elements encompassing the capacity to modify exposure to risks associated with climate change, absorb and recover from losses stemming from climate impacts, and exploit new opportunities that arise in the process of adaptation.
適應能力是一個向量的資源和資產，代表資產的基地，適應行動和投資可。
在IPCC第三次評估報告，人們已經認識到這種能力可能是潛在的，只有在重要行業或系統暴露在實際或預期的氣候刺激[49]。
氣候變化的脆弱性，因此由一個數量的元件，包括暴露的影響，靈敏度和適應能力。
適應能力，因此，一個組件的脆弱性[34,48]。
適應能力有不同的要素包括能力修改暴露風險與氣候變化，吸收和恢復的損失所引起的氣候影響，並利用新的機會，在這個過程中出現的適應。
Adaptation decisions taken by individuals (e.g., to use insurance, relocation away from threats, or changing technologies) and taking place within an institutional context can act to facilitate or constrain adaptation.
It is clear that individuals and societies will adapt and have been adapting to climate change over the course of human history – climate is part of the wider geographical and historical landscape of human habitation.
Thus individuals and societies are vulnerable to climate risks and other factors and this vulnerability can act as a driver for adaptive resource management.
There are various geographic scales and social agents involved in adaptation.
Some adaptation by individuals is undertaken in response to climate threats, often triggered by individual extreme events [46].
Other adaptation is undertaken by governments on behalf of society, sometimes in anticipation of change but again, often in response to individual events.
Government policies and individual adaptations are not independent of each other – they are embedded in governance
processes that reflect the relationship between individuals, their capabilities and social capital, and the government.
A previously hypothesised distinction between planned and autonomous adaptation [49] fails to account for the nested nature of decision-making – each individual adaptation action is constrained by antecedent development and regulatory decisions.
Indeed all adaptation decisions and policies have socially differentiated impacts and equity implications.
This emerging set of insights into how adaptation occurs is likely to be planned for the future, and on the nature of the capacity to adapt (see [6] for a review), pose significant challenges for the description and incorporation of uncertainty into its assessment.
適應由個人作出的決定（例如，使用保險，搬遷遠離威脅，或改變技術）和發生在一個體制環境可以採取行動，促進或制約的適應。
很顯然，個人和社會將適應，並已適應氣候變化對人類歷史的過程 - 氣候是部分更廣泛的地域和歷史景觀的人類居住。
因此，個人和社會都容易受到氣候風險和其他因素，此漏洞可以作為驅動的自適應資源管理。
有各種各樣的地理範圍和社會代理人參與了適應。
一些適應個人是開展應對氣候威脅，往往引發的個人極端事件[46]。
其他適應工作，由政府代表社會，有時在預期的改變，但再次，往往因應個別事件。
政府政策和個人的修改是不是相互獨立 - 它們嵌入在治理
過程，反映了個人之間的關係，他們的能力和社會資本，和政府。
一個先前hypothesised區分計劃和自主適應 [49]沒有考慮嵌套性決策 - 每個人的適應行動受制於先前的發展和監管的決定。
事實上，所有的決定和政策，適應社會不同的影響和公平的影響。
這種新興的集洞察如何適應發生很可能是對未來的計劃，並在自然的適應能力（見 [6]的評論），構成重大挑戰的描述和將其納入評估的不確定性。
6W.N. Adger, N. Brooks, G. Bentham, M. Agnew, S. Eriksen,
New indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, Technical
Report 7, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research,
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, 2004.
