Oil spills have become a global problem that involves a complex set of scientists, engineers, policy-makers, corporations, and communities. This symposium seeks to understand the dynamic and linked relationship of vulnerabilities and the process of adaptation regarding major oil spills, and identify useful conceptual and practical knowledge that can be applied to current and future spills and other environmental extreme events. In this light, the panel will compare and contrast particular vulnerabilities and adaptation mechanisms of large oil spills in France (1999), Spain (2002), Korea (2007), and the United States (2010) and examines different dimensions of oil spills ranging from ecological, engineering, and economic to community responses and recovery. These case studies, then, will be situated in the frameworks of disaster risk management and coastal disasters. Given the complex set of actors involved in adaptation to oil spills, how can we coordinate and organize disaster responses and recovery adequately to avoid creating additional vulnerabilities? What are the ways to adapt better and enhance social-ecological resilience to oil spills and other coastal disasters? The session will wrap up with discussions of ways to exchange lessons and generate a global, multidimensional framework for adaptation to oil spills in light of the reports from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.