Why Ag is Different
Hazards, exposures, vulnerabilities and adaptation are uniquely challenging in agriculture
Agriculture faces a broad range of hazards, with vulnerabilities across land, water, facilities and supply networks.
And adaptation is highly context-dependent, combining changes in management practices, improvements in soil function, and infrastructure investments.
Physical Risk Challenges
Physical risk analysis is an established tool in the built environment for quantifying potential losses and evaluating investments in adaptation and resilience.
The methodology holds considerable promise for agriculture, but the sector presents distinctive challenges.
Inherently Local Adaptation
Agricultural adaptation combines industrial measures, such as flood protection, backup power and storage, with biological changes that improve soil function, establish windbreaks and restore ecological buffers.
Biological adaptation also has a lead time: improving soil function or establishing living buffers can take years to build resilience.