摘要：The literature on drought, livelihoods, and poverty suggests that dryland residents areespecially vulnerable to climate change. However, assessing this vulnerability and sharing lessons betweendryland communities on how to reduce vulnerability has proven difficult because of multiple definitionsof vulnerability, complexities in quantification, and the temporal and spatial variability inherent in drylandagroecological systems. In this closing editorial, we review how we have addressed these challenges througha series of structured, multiscale, and interdisciplinary vulnerability assessment case studies from drylandsin West Africa, southern Africa, Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These case studies adopta common vulnerability framework but employ different approaches to measuring and assessingvulnerability. By comparing methods and results across these cases, we draw out the following key lessons:(1) Our studies show the utility of using consistent conceptual frameworks for vulnerability assessmentseven when quite different methodological approaches are taken; (2) Utilizing narratives and scenarios tocapture the dynamics of dryland agroecological systems shows that vulnerability to climate change maydepend more on access to financial, political, and institutional assets than to exposure to environmentalchange; (3) Our analysis shows that although the results of quantitative models seem authoritative, theymay be treated too literally as predictions of the future by policy makers looking for evidence to supportdifferent strategies. In conclusion, we acknowledge there is a healthy tension between bottom-up/qualitative/place-based approaches and top-down/quantitative/generalizable approaches, and we encourageresearchers from different disciplines with different disciplinary languages, to talk, collaborate, and engageeffectively with each other and with stakeholders at all levels
