Now more than ever: The need for more societally relevant research on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Geographers have a long history of contributing to basic, use-inspired, and applied research on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: global climate change. Their contributions cut across all the major traditions and subfields within geography, have aimed at a variety of scales, and have connected to the scholarship of other disciplines. Building on these past accomplishments, this paper argues that geographers must continue their interdisciplinary endeavors and engage now-even more so than before-in practice-relevant research, particularly in the area of the human dimensions of climate change. The paper points to a range of critical research needs in the area of vulnerability and adaptation, particularly focused on the US, and argues for rapid capacity building and far-reaching changes in the incentive structure for geographers to engage in practice-relevant research and in interaction with policy-makers and resource managers at the science-practice interface. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.