Abstract
This chapter draws together an overall understanding of the social‐natural‐technical policy frameworks within which emBRACE work can be considered. It explains some of the discursive background to the ideas coalesced within the emBRACE framework. The chapter also explains why deciding upon policy interventions to support community resilience presents us with 'wicked' and 'messy' problems. Climate change is widely recognised to be putting populations and their livelihood systems at potential risk, leading to resource degradation, disasters, and setting back development. Climate adaptation also interacts strongly with disaster risk reduction (DRR) and disaster risk management (DRM). Climate change adaptation is an area which has gained the attention of those researching natural hazards, disaster, and sustainable development, amongst other fields. The empirical data‐gathering methods allow stakeholders to create partial mirrors of their systems to be used collaboratively to think better about gaps and problems, and come up with new strategies for adaptive and resilient communities.