Qualitative and quantitative studies will be conducted to identify how uncertainty can lead to vulnerability among certain populations or in specific landscapes associated with various climatic events and institutional contexts. Because vulnerability science considers the social in relation to the environmental, emphasis will be on the historical, geographic, political, social, and economic conditions that put people and places at risk. This research will also be placed in the context of resilience theory; in particular, modeling the capacity for the human ecosystem to withstand disturbance and what role uncertainty plays in systemic change.