LAUSR

Adaptation, the adjustment in natural or human systems to a new or changing environment (Smit et al. 2000; Watson and Albritton 2001), has come to the forefront of discussions on climate change. Over the past decade, the number of scientific publications on adaptation to climate change has quadrupled (see Fig. 1). Human adaptation to climate change is about changing and adjusting behaviors at the present and also developing strategies to deal with the impacts of expected climate change in the near and far future. The majority of the world’s governments have ratified or signed the Paris Climate Agreement which, in addition to aiming to keep global warming below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, established a global goal of Benhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change^ (Article 7). Yet, investment in adaptation is to date insufficient; the annual costs of adaptation for developing countries have been estimated as between US$140 billion and US$300 billion by 2030, an order of magnitude greater than current financing (UNEP 2016). Greater communication, cooperation, and coordination of both policy and scientific work that crosses both disciplinary and geographical boundaries are needed to help reduce or clarify uncertainties in future climate projections and inform adaptation decisions. This special issue attempts to improve the knowledge related to climate change adaptation in the Mekong River Basin and contribute to the broader literature on climate change adaptation (Fig. 2). The focus on the Mekong River Basin is critical: past research on climate change adaptation in the basin is limited, key areas in the basin have been identified as vulnerable to climate change (e.g., the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, the Cambodian Tonle Sap lake), and the basin is developing rapidly. Climatic Change (2018) 149:1–11 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2242-y