differentiate between ‘end-point’ and
‘start-point’ features of climate change vulnerability. End-point
studies define vulnerability in terms of net impacts and inevitably
frame adaptive options in terms of ‘‘fixes’’, often technological in
nature, which will minimize particular impacts that have been projected.
The ‘starting-point’ approach, which is employed in this
study, defines vulnerability as a pre-existing state generated by
multiple factors and processes, such as political or economic marginalization,
that conditions the ability to respond to stress.