Heat Metrics
Adaptive Capacity
The ability of a system [or locality] to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes such as heat) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences.
Sensitivity
Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change. The effect may be direct (e.g., a change in crop yield in response to a change in the mean, range or variability of temperature) or indirect (e.g., damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal flooding due to sea-level rise).
Exposure
The nature and degree to which a system is exposed to significant climatic variations [i.e. high temperatures]
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity.
Ratings
This refers to the specific local government areas’ score rated “low”, “medium”, “high”, or “very high”.
Each score is assigned its ranking by using standard deviations relative to all of Western Australia (WA rating). An additional rating has been assigned based on whether the local government is metropolitan/urban or rural based on the Western Australian Local Government Association’s zones.
All definitions on this page are from IPCC: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007 M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden and C.E. Hanson (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. Read more here.