Abstract

Climate change is occurring in the Southeastern United States, and one manifestation is changes in frequency and intensity of extreme events. A vulnerability assessment is performed in the state of Georgia (United States) at the county level from 1975 to 2012 in decadal increments. Climate change vulnerability is typically measured as a function of exposure to physical phenomena (e.g., droughts, floods), sensitivity to factors affecting the social milieu, and the capacity of a given unit to adapt to changing physical conditions. The paper builds on previous assessments and offers a unique approach to vulnerability analyses by combining climatic, social, land cover, and hydrological components together into a unified vulnerability assessment, which captures both long-term and hydroclimatic events.