ABSTRACT
Adaptation is a social response to low socio-ecological resilience and high socio-ecological vulnerability to the impacts of change. Adaptation is applied locally but directly at the point of contact. This is different from mitigation, which can be applied at several levels simultaneously, but most particularly, nationally and internationally. Most vulnerability has not been caused by more immediate dynamics such as climate change; but climate variability and uncertainty have become added factors exacerbating pre-existing layers of vulnerability.
