GEOG 438W
Human Dimensions of Global Warming

Maladaptation

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In the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group II (Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation) offered this definition of maladaptation:

"...actions that may lead to increased risk of adverse climate-related outcomes, increased vulnerability to climate change, or diminished welfare, now or in the future." (IPCC Working Group II, 2014)

And while we tend to think of maladaptation in its most basic sense as being action that makes something worse, the IPCC went on to provide categorical examples of maladaptive actions:

Adapted from Table 14-4 in IPCC WGIIAR5 Part A
Broad type of maladaptive Action
Failure to anticipate future climates. Large engineering projects that are inadequate for future climates. Intensive use of non-renewable resources (e.g., groundwater) to solve immediate adaptation problem.
Engineered defenses that preclude alternative approaches such as ecosystem-based adaptation.
Adaptation actions not taking wider impacts into account.
Awaiting more information, or not doing so, and eventually acting either too early or too late. Awaiting better "projections" rather than using scenario planning and adaptive management approaches.
Forgoing longer term benefits in favor of immediate adaptive actions; depletion of natural capital leading to greater vulnerability.
Locking into a path dependence, making path correction difficult and often too late.
Unavoidable ex post maladaptation, e.g., expanding irrigation that eventually will have to be replaced in the distant future.
Moral hazard, i.e., encouraging inappropriate risk taking based on, e.g., insurance, social security net, or aid backup.
Adopting actions that ignore local relationships, traditions, traditional knowledge, or property rights, leading to eventual failure.
Adopting actions that favor directly or indirectly one group over others leading to breakdown and possibly conflict.
Retaining traditional responses that are no longer appropriate.
Migration may be adaptive or maladaptive or both depending on context and the individuals involved.