This study investigates the vulnerability level of the coastal community of Grande
Riviere, Trinidad to climate change by developing and empirically applying a
Vulnerability Index. Five pillars were developed that comprised different
indicators and sub-indicators. These were then populated with a combination of
primary and secondary data. The composite index suggested a scoring of 0.3371
as the vulnerability level for Grande Riviere, with the most and least vulnerable
pillars being the human and social capital pillars respectively. Simulation
exercises for a variety of policy options and exogenous shocks were conducted to
examine how the index and its components would be impacted. These simulations
led to a series of adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change at the
governmental, community and household levels. The end results underscore the
need for communities of small island states such as Grande Riviere to adopt
appropriate measures to deal with climate change collectively and effectively.