As climate change risks intensify, existing adaptation measures may no longer be sufficient to address increasingly severe impacts and risks. Therefore, climate adaptation needs to break through existing approaches and undergo transformation [3][4]. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what incremental adaptation and transformational adaptation are in order to help assess whether or not current adaptation planning requires adjustment and innovative breakthroughs.

Incremental adaptation

Adaptation that does not change the fundamental nature or operating logic of the existing system, and can be understood as an extension of existing measures to reduce the impacts of climate hazards. For example, in response to increasingly hot or dry growing seasons, developing drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant varieties, strengthening water resources, and improving field management practices are existing measures enhanced to maintain the operation of the original system [1][3]. In some cases, incremental adaptation may accumulate and evolve into transformative adaptation.

Transformative adaptation

Transformative adaptation changes the fundamental nature or operating logic of existing social-ecological systems to respond to anticipated climate change and its associated impacts. For example, when the original cultivation area of a certain crop has already been affected by high temperatures and is expected to become even more unsuitable for cultivation due to more severe future warming, the relevant authorities may proactively assess the feasibility of relocating suitable cultivation areas, switching to other crops, or replanning land use. In doing so, the envisioned use of the land is no longer confined to the existing utilization logic of the original industry [3][4].

Further reading

IPCC氣候變遷第六次評估報告「衝擊、調適與脆弱度」之「漸進式與轉型式調適」論述摘要

References                

[1] IPCC. (2022). Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press.

[2] Kates, R.W., Travis, W.R., & Wilbanks, T. (2012). Transformational adaptation when incremental adaptations to climate change are insufficient. PNAS, 109(9), 7156-7161.

[3] Iizumi, T. (2019). Emerging Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture. In: Adaptation to Climate Change in Agriculture, Springer, pp 3–16, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-9235-1_1

[4] IPCC. (2014). Summary for policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, (pp. 1-32).