Univ. of Arizona - Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA)

This project seeks to better define social vulnerability to climate and the intersection of acute impacts and chronic conditions that further amplify these vulnerabilities. This project aims to develop climate services, build collaborative research partnerships, and engage regional stakeholder networks. Current activities focus on energy equity and thermal comfort in Tucson neighborhoods and developing improved characterizations of urban heat and air quality maps.

Collaborators from SERI and BARA focus on household experiences of thermal comfort, cooling infrastructure, and resulting behavior. CLIMAS researchers focus on assessing the role of neighborhood and regional patterns on thermal comfort, the role of long-term climate change) and investments in and inequitable distribution of buffering infrastructure. Expanding on previous work that views vulnerability as the accumulation of negative characteristics commonly associated with location (e.g., SOVI) or climate vulnerability, this research seeks to understand how vulnerability relates to lack of access to systems, more than the failure of those systems.

These projects examined the ways in which residents of the Southwest are vulnerable to climate variability. The region's dry, extreme, and highly variable climate is a major factor shaping ecological and socioeconomic processes. Here, water is a scarce and valuable resource that is directly impacted by climate variability. The Southwest is one of the fastest growing regions in the country and its rate of growth is expected to continue to remain high. Accelerated development and urbanization translates into increased competition for water resources among urban areas, industry and agriculture. These factors underscore the need to understand how the Southwest is affected by climate variability and how vulnerabilities may be reduced from improved climate forecasts. Understanding past and current human vulnerabilities and adaptations is the first step towards addressing more drastic future changes.