Mapping vulnerability of the elderly to climate change in Northern Europe

Image: Web-based vulnerability mapping tool (prototype) developed as part of the CARAVAN project, depicting exposure/sensitivity of the elderly to climate change (left panel), adaptive capacity (central panel) and a combined vulnerability index (right panel).

The elderly population is growing rapidly across the Nordic region. Within this group many individuals are potentially vulnerable to the impacts of severe weather events such as heatwaves, cold spells, storms and floods. This case study aims to explore alternative approaches for describing and mapping vulnerability of the elderly to future changes in frequency or intensity of such events at the municipal scale across the Nordic region. It is primarily targeted at care givers and planners working at regional and national scale.

A describtion of the case study was published in the following article:

Carter, T., S. Fronzek, A. Inkinen, I. Lahtinen, M. Lahtinen, H. Mela, K.L. O’Brien, L.D. Rosentrater, R. Ruuhela, L. Simonsson and E. Terama (2014). Characterising vulnerability of the elderly to climate change in the Nordic region. Regional Environmental Change, doi:10.1007/s10113-014-0688-7.

CARAVAN online vulnerability mapping tool

• A Regional Assessment of Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity for the Nordic Countries
• Read more about the MEDIATION project

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 244012