Climate extremes such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and severe, disproportionately affecting fragile and conflict-affected regions where institutional capacity, governance systems, and critical infrastructure are already under significant stress. In these contexts, climate risks are not only driven by environmental processes but are also shaped by governance structures, policy decisions, and socio-political conditions that determine how communities experience and respond to climate hazards.
This research develops an interdisciplinary framework to examine the interactions between climate extremes, institutional governance, infrastructure resilience, and social vulnerability in highly constrained, fragmented, and fragile settings. The project investigates how governance arrangements, policy exclusion, and political instability influence adaptive capacity, resilience, and climate risk, while assessing the extent to which these factors amplify or reduce the impacts of extreme climate events. Drawing on climate science, governance analysis, and environmental justice perspectives, the research integrates climate risk assessment with institutional and policy analysis to identify barriers to effective adaptation and resilience-building. The ultimate outcome is an evidence-based governance framework that supports more inclusive climate adaptation policies, strengthens institutional resilience, and promotes equitable and sustainable responses to climate extremes in vulnerable regions.