346 Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Reflecting on the challenges and barriers of performing climate change vulnerability assessments in Scotland Marta Bruno Soares* Environmental Initiatives Research Group, School of Science, University of the West of Scotland, High Street, Paisley PA1 2BE, Scotland, UK E-mail: marta.soares@uws.ac.uk Alexandre S. Gagnon Environmental Initiatives Research Group, School of Science, University of the West of Scotland, High Street, Paisley PA1 2BE, Scotland, UK E-mail: alexandre.gagnon@uws.ac.uk Abstract: Different conceptual perspectives and analytical approaches can be pursued in the analysis of climate change vulnerability. These include top-down and bottom-up approaches which frame and assess vulnerability in different ways using different methods and tools. Bottom-up approaches tend to focus on the analysis of vulnerability at the local level by addressing local conditions and processes that influence and affect the vulnerability of a system to climate change. However, performing vulnerability assessments (VA) using this type of analytical approach can be hindered and limited by numerous challenges such as the access to and quality of, data as well as the analytical compromises and trade-offs that come out of those challenges. Focusing on the farming sector, this paper reflects on “the challenges, compromises and analytical trade-offs” that were made to perform the analysis of vulnerability using a bottom-up approach in the Ayrshire region of Scotland. Keywords: climate change; vulnerability assessment; bottom-up; analytical and operational challenges; institutional barriers; analytical trade-offs; Ayrshire; Scotland. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bruno Soares, M. and Gagnon, A.S. (2012) ‘Reflecting on the challenges and barriers of performing climate change vulnerability assessments in Scotland’, Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4, pp.346–364. Bibliographical notes: Marta Bruno Soares is with the Environmental Initiatives Research Group at the University of the West of Scotland. She received her MSc in Spatial Planning from Oxford Brookes University, UK in 2005. She