Climate vulnerability index-measure of climate change vulnerability to communities: a case of rural Lower Himalaya, India (original) (raw)
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Regional Environmental Change, 2014
This paper reviews the state of knowledge on social vulnerability to climate change in three hot spots (deltas, semi-arid regions and snowpack-or glacier-fed river basins) in Africa, Central Asia and South Asia, using elements of systematic review methods. Social vulnerability is defined as a dynamic state of societies comprising exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. We examine whether the hot spots have specific characteristics that tend to increase or decrease social vulnerability, consider suitable scales of analysis for understanding vulnerability, and explore the conceptions of vulnerability adopted in the climate change literature and the nature of the insights this generates. Finally, we identify knowledge gaps in this literature. All three hot spots are characterized by high levels of natural resource dependence, with increasing environmental degradation. They also exhibit unequal policies and patterns of development, which benefit certain segments of society while making others more vulnerable. Vulnerability is driven by multiple factors operating at different scales; however, characterization of cross-scalar interactions is poorly developed in the majority of studies reviewed. Most studies are either large scale, such as broad comparisons of vulnerability across countries, or local, documenting community-level processes. Detailed understanding of the interactions between climate change impacts on natural systems, and socio-economic trajectories, including adaptation, also emerges as a knowledge gap.
It is increasingly clear that climate variability and change is a reality that brings huge consequences to both human environment and livelihood. In the light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projection for severe and extreme weather conditions in the 21st Century, the author identifies climate change as a phenomenon that brings severe consequences to both human environment and livelihood. The inadequacies of tackling the problem in developing countries are emphasized as dependent on several biophysical and socio-economic processes. The paper is aimed at showing how climate and human systems influence the level of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change based on a theoretical climate change vulnerability framework by proposing the identification of determinants of vulnerability as basic that can facilitate the understanding of the dynamics of vulnerability and the timely incorporation of adaptation strategies into developmental policies.
Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: An Evaluation of Social Dimension
Journal of Sustainability and Environmental Management, 2022
Climate change vulnerability is the function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of its natural and socioeconomic systems. Following spatial "scale" of the assessment, administrative-territorial units were selected for this study. A field survey questionnaire was used to collect data for the study based on the sample size of 500 questionnaires that was administered to household heads in the study area. In the questionnaire, questions were designed to give respondents the opportunity to choose from several alternatives given in the instrument while descriptive statistics was for the analysis of data. Descriptive statistics analysis based on mean ranking was carried out to identify the level of peoples' vulnerability to climate change in the study area. The exposure assessment was based on the response analysis of baseline information. The sensitivity assessment for the study was analyzed by using physiographical and socioeconomic characteristics, described by a set of specific indicators and responses of the residents. The adaptive capacity was captured by general economic and agricultural indicators, taking into consideration the major occupation the predominant lifestyle of the residents. Through a ranking approach, the relative vulnerability of each ATU was calculated by summing its sensitivity and adaptive capacity ranks; the latter were obtained as combinations of their primary indicator ranks, arranged in an increasing and decreasing order, respectively. The major climate change exposure pathway in the study area were reduction in green environment, decrease in total annual rainfall, warmer weather, early cessation of rainfall, late onset of rainfall and shrinkage of water bodies. The major sensitivity to climate change was decrease in crop yield, whereas increase in cost of food crops, drought incidents, famine, poverty, indiscriminate falling down of trees and disaster. It was also established that the major adaptive strategies to climate change in the study area were irrigation farming, use of organic manure, planting of drought tolerant varieties and early planting.
Vulnerability in the Context of Climate Change
Climate change, currently researched and already debated in global and regional forums, can be a factor which could be considered a hazard in itself. However, climate change will also directly modify existing hazards like floods, droughts, and hurricanes. While the disaster—reduction community has elaborated risk models in terms of hazards, vulnerabilities, and coping capacities (ISDR, Living with Risk, 2002, 2004), climate change needs to be introduced, either as a factor which modifies existing hazards, or as a hazard in itself. The impact which climate change will have on present day activities and development will vary from society to society and within different regions of the world, according to its manifestations. One crucial impact related to climate change will be felt in agriculture, especially in developing countries where subsistence agriculture is common, so many crops do not fare well with climate change, and a major challenge of paramount importance in adaptation will involve finding other sources of livelihoods. This paper addresses ways in which climate change can be introduced into the commonly used risk models, as well as issues which will need further discussion within the global communities of experts in development and disaster reduction. In particular, the paper will focus on standing research questions regarding social vulnerabilities tied to climate change, as well as the context of some preparedness and adaptation measures currently being explored.
Explaining differential vulnerability to climate change: A social science review
WIREs Climate Change
The varied effects of recent extreme weather events around the world exemplify the uneven impacts of climate change on populations, even within relatively small geographic regions. Differential human vulnerability to environmental hazards results from a range of social, economic, historical, and political factors, all of which operate at multiple scales. While adaptation to climate change has been the dominant focus of policy and research agendas, it is essential to ask as well why some communities and peoples are disproportionately exposed to and affected by climate threats. The cases and synthesis presented here are organized around four key themes (resource access, governance, culture, and knowledge), which we approach from four social science fields (cultural anthropology, archaeology, human geography, and sociology). Social scientific approaches to human vulnerability draw vital attention to the root causes of climate change threats and the reasons that people are forced to adapt to them. Because vulnerability is a multidimensional process rather than an unchanging state, a dynamic social approach to vulnerability is most likely to improve mitigation and adaptation planning efforts.
Climate and Development, 2012
Background CCPAN (2007) and Hope (2011) have defined climate change as any long-term significant regional change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns). Also, they argued that it is therefore any major long-term variation in the average weather that a given region experiences. They have stated that these variations must be statistically significant in measurements of either the mean state or variability of the climate for that region, whether due to natural factors or as a result of human activity. For them, climate change can, consequently, be regarded as a change of climate, which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, and which alters the composition of the global or regional atmosphere, in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods. According to Fussel (2005) and weADAPT (2011), "vulnerability is a central concept in a variety of research contexts such as natural hazards and disaster management, ecology, public health, poverty and development, secure livelihoods and famine, sustainability science, land change, and climate impacts and adaptation". Parry et al. (2007) have
Theory and Practice in Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change andFacilitating Adaptation
Climatic Change, 2000
We discuss approaches to the assessment of vulnerability to climate variability and change and attempt to clarify the relationship between the concepts of vulnerability and adaptation. In search of a robust, policy-relevant framework, we define vulnerability in terms of the capacity of individuals and social groups to respond to, that is, to cope with, recover from or adapt to, any external stress placed on their livelihoods and well-being. The approach that we develop places the social and economic well-being of society at the centre of the analysis, focussing on the socio-economic and institutional constraints that limit the capacity to respond. From this perspective, the vulnerability or security of any group is determined by resource availability and by the entitlement of individuals and groups to call on these resources. We illustrate the application of this approach through the results of field research in coastal Vietnam, highlighting shifting patterns of vulnerability to tropical storm impacts at the household-and community-level in response to the current process of economic renovation and drawing conclusions concerning means of supporting the adaptive response to climate stress. Four priorities for action are identified that would improve the situation of the most exposed members of many communities: poverty reduction; risk-spreading through income diversification; respecting common property management rights; and promoting collective security. A sustainable response, we argue, must also address the underlying causes of social vulnerability, including the inequitable distribution of resources.
Societal Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability
1999
Institutions in many wealthy industrialised countries are robust and their societies appear to be relatively well insulated against the impacts of climate variability, economic problems elsewhere and so on. However, many countries are not in this position, and there is a growing group of humanity which is not benefiting from the apparent global adaptive trends. Worst case scenarios reinforce the impact of this uneven distribution of adaptive capacity, both between and within countries. Nevertheless, at the broad global scale human societies are strongly adaptive and not threatened by climate change for many decades. At the local level the picture is quite different and the survival of some populations at their present locations is in doubt. In the absence of abatement, the longer term outlook is highly uncertain. Adaptation research needs to begin with an understanding of social and economic vulnerability. It requires a different approach to the traditional IPCC impacts assessment, as human behaviour, institutional capacity and culture are more important than biophysical impacts. This is consistent with the intellectual history of the IPCC which has gradually embraced an increasing range of disciplines.
Climate Change and Community Vulnerability
Community Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Local Coping Mechanisms in Khudi Watershed. A. R. Sharma , K .P. Sharma , N.R.Khanal The Khudi watershed lies in western Nepal within 28003’-28030’ north, 84011’-84038’ east and 823 m-3000 m above sea level. The agrarian watershed with seven hundred households was dominated by Bahun/Chettri (51%), Gurung (21%) and several others (28%). Temperature and precipitation data analysis between 1987 to 2006 and 1975 to 2006 respectively showed some changes. Temperature was in increasing trend. The maximum mean temperature was increasing at 0.810C/decade and the minimum mean temperature was increasing at 0.260C/decade. Seasonal temperature data also showed increasing trend, winter temperature was highly increasing trend (1.170C/decade maximum and 0.760C/decade minimum temperature trend). Average Precipitation of two trends of driest months, November and December, was decreasing by 0.58 mm/yr and 0.10 mm/yr respectively while that of wettest month, July showed the increasing trend of 1.91 mm/yr. Regarding the experience of local inhabitants, more than 90 percent respondents have experienced increasing temperature, and 91 percent respondents have experienced unusual rainfall events. Fifty percent respondents believed that rainfall amount was decreasing in recent past with direct impacts on agricultural production and water resources. Most of the farming communities experienced unusual weather patterns with negative impacts on agricultural production, increasing water scarcity and increased frequency of weather related disasters. Local adaptive capacity was poor. Knowingly or unknowingly some coping strategies like use of sprinkle irrigation, use of new varieties of crops, were adopted within the communities. There was an urgent need to formulate adaptive strategies for food securities and for dealing with water scarcities and climate change induced disasters. Key Words: Climate change, Community, Disaster, Vulnerability, People’s perception.