Newswise — While climate change has been an emerging topic of interest to the world community, little scientific data exists on the vulnerability and resilience of households to climate-related “shocks” and events like more intense hurricanes and prolonged drought. But now, a Baylor University researcher has explored various means by which individuals and communities are responding to weather and climate change.

 

Dr. Sara Alexander, an applied social anthropologist at Baylor who conducts much of her research work in Central America, studied different households in several large and small coastal communities in Belize. Alexander and her team identified vulnerable households in these tourism-dependent communities and examined how they adapted and coped with major climate events and shocks like hurricanes and floods. The Baylor researchers also measured each household’s long-term resilience, an area that has not been extensively researched, and identified different behaviors and strategies that lead some families to cope better and emerge stronger after a weather-related event.