CRiSTAL community-based risk screening, adaptation and livelihoods, user's manual

A decision support tool for assessing and enhancing project impacts on local adaptive capacity to climate variability and climate change, version 3.0 November 2007:

This document addresses the impacts of climate variability and climate change community-level projects by strengthening local adaptive capacity, so that communities are able to adjust, moderate or take advantage of climate-induced changes in their settings. It states that community-level projects may already be improving adaptive capacity or constraining it, but that without a tool to assess the impact of a project on adaptive capacity, it is difficult for project planners and managers to introduce activities that foster adaptation and minimize maladaptation.

Drawing on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) model and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF), this tool is aimed to provide a logical, user-friendly process to help users better understand the links between climate-related risks, people’s livelihoods, and project activities. Specifically, it is intended to help project planners and managers to: (i) Systematically understand the links between local livelihoods and climate; (ii) Assess a project’s impact on livelihood resources important to adaptation; and (iii) Devise adjustments that improve a project’s impact on livelihood resources important to adaptation.

It has been developed jointly by IISD, IUCN, SEI-US and Intercooperation.