Now-a-days 'vulnerability' is considered as a vital concept in the research of global change and climate change. Climate change has been creating unprecedented impacts on natural and human systems and is predicted to do more so in future, leading to vulnerability in different communities. However, due to some particular characteristics, fishing is considered as one of the high-risk living activities. Nevertheless, climate change is affecting fisheries sector very rapidly and mutely, with effects unevenly distributed across the world specially towards the livelihood of small-scale fishing (SSF) communities of inland open water areas. For this reason, there is a requirement for in-depth studies on vulnerability. Therefore, this paper presents: 1) the issues and concepts related with the impact of climate change on SSFs of inland open water areas from vulnerability perspective; 2) a conceptual framework for developing an approach to assess the climate vulnerability status of SSF communities of inland open water areas.