Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Training Course

Duration 10 days 19 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Climate Adaptation Officers, Environmental and Social Specialists and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CCA-007

Before you join: Participants should have working familiarity with their sector, project area or organisational assets, and be comfortable reading tables, maps and technical reports.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Climate hazards are already affecting assets, public services, supply chains, ecosystems and communities. Decision-makers need more than hazard maps: they need defensible assessments that show who and what is exposed, why vulnerability differs, which risks require action, and how adaptation investments should be prioritised. Poorly scoped assessments can produce attractive maps without usable decisions, overlook vulnerable groups, or recommend actions that fail under future climate conditions.

This course develops the practical methods used to assess climate risk and vulnerability for places, projects, facilities, programmes and service systems. Participants work through the IPCC AR6 risk framework, ISO 14091 assessment process, climate scenario selection, exposure analysis, vulnerability indicators, participatory assessment, GIS mapping and risk prioritisation. They learn to combine climate evidence with asset, demographic, ecosystem and operational data; assess uncertainty; identify adaptation options; and prepare implementation, monitoring and governance arrangements.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with worked cases from municipal infrastructure, agriculture, water services, health, humanitarian programmes and corporate operations. Participants use structured worksheets, risk registers, indicator tables, map specifications and option appraisal criteria throughout the course. They leave with a completed climate risk and vulnerability assessment package for a realistic or work-based case, including maps, scored risks, priority adaptation actions and an implementation outline.

The course suits professionals who commission, conduct, review or use climate risk assessments. It is particularly relevant where investment decisions, resilience planning, project design, land-use planning, environmental management, disaster risk reduction or climate reporting require evidence that can withstand technical and stakeholder scrutiny.

What you will be able to do

  • Define an assessment scope using ISO 14091 boundaries, objectives and decision criteria
  • Interpret climate hazard evidence from observations, projections and climate scenarios
  • Analyse exposure of people, assets, services and ecosystems using spatial datasets
  • Construct vulnerability indicators using sensitivity and adaptive capacity evidence
  • Produce climate risk maps and risk registers using documented scoring methods
  • Prioritise adaptation options through multi-criteria analysis and feasibility screening
  • Prepare monitoring indicators, governance arrangements and adaptation implementation actions
  • Present a complete climate risk and vulnerability assessment for decision approval

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build confidence reviewing consultant-produced climate risk assessments
  • Produce defensible vulnerability maps for projects, places or service areas
  • Translate climate projections into operational planning assumptions
  • Prioritise adaptation actions with transparent decision criteria
  • Present climate risk findings clearly to technical and senior audiences

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency of climate risk assessments across projects and locations
  • Identifies priority assets, communities and services requiring adaptation investment
  • Strengthens evidence for resilience funding proposals and project business cases
  • Reduces maladaptation risk through scenario testing and option screening
  • Creates auditable records linking climate evidence to adaptation decisions

Course modules

19 modules over 10 days

Participants can frame climate risk using recognised adaptation assessment concepts.

  • IPCC AR6 risk framing: hazard, exposure, vulnerability and impacts
  • Distinguishing acute shocks from slow onset climate stressors
  • Using ISO 14091 steps to structure assessment decisions
  • Separating climate risk from environmental, social and operational risk
  • Defining adaptation objectives, risk owners and decision thresholds
  • Tracing causal pathways between climate drivers and service failure

Participants can establish an assessment scope, governance structure and stakeholder engagement plan.

  • Setting geographic, temporal and system boundaries for assessments
  • Identifying decision users, accountable owners and technical contributors
  • RACI matrices for assessment governance and quality assurance
  • Stakeholder mapping using influence, interest and vulnerability criteria
  • Documenting assessment assumptions, exclusions and evidence limitations
  • Preparing terms of reference for climate risk studies

Participants can define systems and critical functions exposed to climate hazards.

  • System mapping of assets, dependencies, users and service flows
  • Identifying critical infrastructure through consequence and recovery criteria
  • Asset registers linked to location, condition and service function
  • Service disruption pathways from hazard occurrence to user impacts
  • Dependency analysis for power, water, transport and communications
  • Selecting assessment units: households, facilities, catchments or districts

Participants can identify relevant hazards from observed climate and impact evidence.

  • Hazard typologies for heat, flood, drought, wildfire and storms
  • Observed climate trends from station records and gridded datasets
  • Extreme event metrics: intensity, duration, frequency and seasonality
  • Event chronology built from disaster records and operational logs
  • Separating climate signals from land use and management effects
  • Hazard thresholds linked to asset performance and human health

Participants can select and interpret climate projections appropriate to assessment decisions.

  • CMIP6 scenarios and shared socioeconomic pathway assumptions
  • Selecting time horizons that match asset lives and planning cycles
  • Reading projection ranges, percentiles and model agreement statements
  • Downscaling concepts: dynamical methods, statistical methods and limitations
  • Avoiding false precision in local climate projection interpretation
  • Recording uncertainty sources within climate evidence summaries

Participants can identify and quantify exposure using spatial and operational data.

  • Exposure inventories for population, assets, livelihoods and ecosystems
  • Overlay analysis linking hazard footprints with exposed receptors
  • Disaggregating population exposure by age, disability and income
  • Estimating seasonal exposure for mobile populations and livelihoods
  • Geocoding facility records and validating coordinate accuracy
  • Calculating exposed asset values from replacement cost records

Participants can assess sensitivity and adaptive capacity using defensible indicators.

  • Sensitivity indicators for health, housing, livelihoods and ecosystems
  • Adaptive capacity indicators covering resources, institutions and information
  • Theory of change linking vulnerability drivers to climate impacts
  • Indicator selection criteria: relevance, validity, feasibility and equity
  • Normalising indicators using min max and percentile methods
  • Weighting alternatives: equal weights, expert judgement and stakeholder scoring

Participants can gather stakeholder evidence while managing inclusion and bias.

  • Participatory rural appraisal tools for climate vulnerability evidence
  • Seasonal calendars identifying climate stress and livelihood pressures
  • Transect walks documenting hazard locations and service constraints
  • Focus group protocols for gender, disability and marginalised groups
  • Key informant interviews testing causal assumptions and local priorities
  • Triangulating community evidence with datasets and technical observations

Participants can construct transparent vulnerability and risk scoring models.

  • Building indicator dictionaries with definitions, sources and update frequency
  • Composite index design using exposure, sensitivity and capacity variables
  • Ordinal scoring scales with explicit evidence anchors
  • Sensitivity testing of weights, thresholds and indicator selection
  • Avoiding double counting among correlated vulnerability indicators
  • Documenting index limitations for decision-makers and reviewers

Participants can prepare assessment data with documented quality controls.

  • Data inventory matrices covering source, owner, date and restrictions
  • Checking completeness, consistency, outliers and duplicate records
  • Metadata records using ISO 19115 core elements
  • Managing missing values through documented imputation rules
  • Version control for datasets, maps, assumptions and calculations
  • Data protection measures for household and vulnerability information

Participants can specify and interpret maps that communicate climate risk clearly.

  • QGIS layers, joins and symbology for vulnerability mapping
  • Choropleth classification using quantiles, natural breaks and equal intervals
  • Raster and vector data selection for hazard representation
  • Map scale, projection and resolution matched to decisions
  • Cartographic design: legends, labels, sources and uncertainty notes
  • Validating mapped hotspots against local knowledge and field evidence

Participants can estimate climate risks and rank them for management action.

  • Risk matrices combining likelihood, consequence and confidence ratings
  • Estimating consequences for safety, service, finance and ecosystems
  • Scenario based risk statements linking hazards to decision impacts
  • Bow tie analysis of causes, controls and escalation factors
  • Risk registers with owners, treatments, deadlines and residual ratings
  • Prioritising material risks through agreed escalation thresholds

Participants can communicate uncertainty and review assessment quality before decisions.

  • IPCC confidence language for evidence, agreement and likelihood
  • Uncertainty registers covering data, models, assumptions and stakeholder inputs
  • Stress testing findings under alternative climate and development futures
  • Peer review checks for logic, traceability and calculation accuracy
  • Distinguishing uncertainty reduction from precautionary decision-making
  • Writing caveats without weakening priority adaptation recommendations

Participants can develop adaptation options that address documented risk drivers.

  • Adaptation typologies: structural, nature based, institutional and behavioural measures
  • Generating options from risk pathways and vulnerability drivers
  • Ecosystem based adaptation for flood, heat and erosion risks
  • Screening maladaptation, lock in effects and distributional harms
  • Applying the adaptation pathways approach to uncertain futures
  • Matching measures to asset life, maintenance capacity and authority

Participants can compare adaptation options using explicit technical and social criteria.

  • Multi criteria analysis using effectiveness, cost, equity and feasibility
  • Cost benefit analysis assumptions for adaptation investment appraisal
  • Real options thinking for staged adaptation under uncertainty
  • Ranking co benefits for health, biodiversity and livelihoods
  • Assessing implementation readiness, institutional capacity and maintenance needs
  • Preparing decision tables for investment committees and programme boards

Participants can convert priority actions into accountable implementation plans.

  • Adaptation action plans with milestones, owners and resource requirements
  • Logic models linking inputs, outputs, outcomes and climate resilience
  • Sequencing no regret, low regret and transformational actions
  • Procurement specifications for climate resilient infrastructure and services
  • Integrating adaptation actions into budgets and annual workplans
  • Escalation procedures for delayed actions and emerging climate threats

Participants can design monitoring arrangements that track adaptation performance and changing risk.

  • Results frameworks for adaptation outputs, outcomes and risk reduction
  • Indicator baselines, targets, data sources and collection responsibilities
  • Monitoring climate thresholds that trigger plan revision
  • Before and after methods for adaptation intervention evaluation
  • Learning reviews using after action review protocols
  • Adaptive management cycles based on evidence and decision triggers

Participants can prepare assessment outputs for technical review and executive decisions.

  • Assessment report structure aligned with ISO 14091 documentation
  • Executive summaries connecting material risks with required decisions
  • Risk map narratives explaining patterns, limits and priority locations
  • Presenting uncertainty through ranges, scenarios and confidence statements
  • Briefing notes tailored for funders, boards and public authorities
  • Evidence traceability from source data to recommended action

Participants can build, review and present a complete climate risk and vulnerability assessment package.

  • Defining a decision focused scope for the selected case
  • Compiling hazard, exposure and vulnerability evidence into assessment tables
  • Producing risk maps, indicator scores and prioritised risk registers
  • Selecting adaptation options through documented appraisal criteria
  • Drafting implementation, monitoring and governance arrangements for priority actions
  • Reviewing assumptions, uncertainty and evidence traceability before presentation

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. ISO 14091 assessment scoping template
  2. Climate hazard and projection evidence summary
  3. Vulnerability indicator dictionary and scoring model
  4. Climate risk register and prioritisation matrix
  5. Adaptation option appraisal worksheet
  6. Climate risk and vulnerability assessment report package

Who should attend

  • Climate Adaptation Officers — responsible for resilience strategies and adaptation programmes
  • Environmental and Social Specialists — assess climate risks within projects and investments
  • Urban Planners — need evidence for land use, infrastructure and service decisions
  • Infrastructure Asset Managers — identify climate threats to facilities and critical services
  • DRR and Humanitarian Programme Managers — target preparedness actions towards vulnerable populations
  • Sustainability and Risk Managers — integrate physical climate risks into corporate decisions

Skills and tools covered

Climate risk assessmentVulnerability mappingScenario interpretationGIS data analysisAdaptation prioritisationRisk communication

Tools and standards

IPCC AR6 risk framework, ISO 14091:2021, CMIP6 climate projections, QGIS

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by case work, group exercises, mapping tasks, risk-scoring simulations and application planning. Participants examine climate datasets, asset records, demographic indicators and stakeholder evidence from realistic cases. The instructor demonstrates each assessment step before participants apply the method using structured templates. Peer review sessions test assumptions, scoring choices, map interpretation and adaptation recommendations. Participants receive feedback on a work-based or realistic assessment package as it develops through the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working familiarity with their sector, project area or organisational assets, and be comfortable reading tables, maps and technical reports. Experience with environmental assessment, disaster risk reduction, planning, infrastructure, sustainability or programme design is useful. Participants should bring a current or prospective assessment case where possible. Prior GIS experience, climate modelling expertise, programming skills and advanced statistics are not required. The course explains core climate data concepts before applying them, but it assumes participants can interpret basic percentages, rankings and spreadsheet calculations.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need practical familiarity with their sector, assets, programme area or project context. They do not need prior GIS, climate modelling or programming experience, although basic spreadsheet confidence is helpful.

Participants should bring available maps, asset lists, risk registers, project documents or climate concerns from their work. A laptop is useful for reviewing templates and data, but the instructor provides all core course materials.

It suits professionals involved in adaptation planning, environmental assessment, infrastructure management, urban planning, disaster risk reduction, sustainability and programme design. It is designed for people who need to produce, commission or review assessments rather than climate scientists developing models.

Climate science courses focus more deeply on atmospheric processes and modelling, while disaster risk reduction courses often focus on preparedness and emergency management. This course concentrates on the assessment process that connects climate evidence, vulnerability, mapped exposure and adaptation investment decisions.

Participants can use the templates to scope an assessment, organise data, score risks, map vulnerable locations and compare adaptation actions. The methods apply to facilities, cities, watersheds, agricultural programmes, public services and corporate sites.

The first week establishes assessment scope, climate evidence, exposure, vulnerability indicators and mapping methods. The second week covers risk prioritisation, adaptation appraisal, implementation, monitoring, reporting and the final assessment package presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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