Welcome to the Ecosystem Vulnerability to Climate Change (EVCC) project website. Our goals are to compile and analyze geographical information systems (GIS) data in order to construct an index of vulnerability to climate change for every ecosystem of Panamá.

Bienvenidos al sitio web de la Vulnerabilidad de los Ecosistemas al Cambio Climático (EVCC). Nuestros objetivos son obtener y analizar datos de sistema de información geográfica (SIG) para construir un índice de la vulnerabilidad al cambio climático para cada ecosistema de Panamá. Haga clic aquí para español.

Essence of the study:

The EVCC is an index of vulnerability assigned to all of the ecosystems in Panama. The overall objectives are to:

• Determine how to assess ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in Panama.
  
  
• Gather, compile, and analyze relevant GIS data, in terms of four domains of vulnerability:
  
  
  1. sea level rise: pinpointing low coastal elevations
  2. ecosystem geometry: measuring potential negative "edge effects" at the boundaries of ecosystems
  3. climatic "space": quantifying projected temperature and precipitation deviations, compared to historical averages
  4. species sensitivity: calculating average habitat ranges for mammals, birds, and amphibians
     
     
• Create maps of overall national ecosystem vulnerability.
  
  
• Apply the results to indicators of development and conservation:
  1. Degree of human intervention
  2. Protected areas
  3. Species richness and endemic species

The main conservation objective in this study is to aid in the preservation of all of Panamanian ecosystem types in the future, both to minimize biodiversity loss and to maintain ecosystem services to Panamanians.

Researchers:

Supervisors: