Reviewing of Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise on Agricultural Sector

기후변화·해수면 상승에 따른 농업부문 통합평가 사례연구 비교분석 및 개선방안

The aim of this paper is to review integrated assessment studies conducted to address the impacts of climate change sea-level rise on agricultural sector and to derive suggestions for improving the integrated assessment process to assist decision-makers in establishing climate change adaptation policy. We collect integrated assessment studies which are based on the impact-pathway analysis, compare their step-by-step procedures and identify main factors addressed in each step. The assessment process is typically carried out in the sequence of scenario development, determination of assessment scope, physical impact assessment, economic analysis and synthesis of the outcomes from each step. We identify two types of integrated assessment. The first one examines the impacts of changes in temperature and/or precipitation on the crop-cultivation patterns and/or agricultural productivity and resulting economic effects on agricultural sector. The other investigates the impacts of sea-level rise on land use/coverage and resulting economic damages in terms of land-value loss where the effects on agriculture is treated as one sector among others. To enhance integrated assessment, we suggest that 1) scenarios need to incorporate the effects of climate change and sea-level rise simultaneously, 2) scope of the assessment needs to be extended to include ecosystem services as well as crop production, 3) social and cultural aspects need to be considered in addition to economic analysis, and 4) synthesis of the outcomes from each step should be able to combine quantitative as well as qualitative information.