Climate change adaptation in disaster-prone communities in Cambodia and Fiji (original) (raw)
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2019
for Institute of Australian Geographers Conference, Hobart, Tasmania, 9-13 July 2019. Title: Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies in rural Cambodia: perceptions from flood-affected communities in Kratie Province Authors: Bryan Boruff, Andreas Neef, Sochanny Hak, Siphat Touch, Chanrith Ngin Abstract: Most studies and development interventions considered climate change adaptation and postdisaster recovery processes as two separate issues. Yet there is increasing evidence that post-disaster recovery can only be successful and sustainable when it not only restores the pre-disaster livelihood situation, but evokes long-term efforts to enhance adaptive capacities to cope with future hazards and environmental risks. As such we aim to determine the factors that enhance or constrain resilience and adaptive capacities for several Cambodian communities impacted by annual flooding and growing environmental risks. Most studies and development interventions considered climate change a...
2017
The Red River Delta (RRD) of Vietnam, one of the world's most densely populated deltas, is already vulnerable to flooding events, and climate change forecasts project increased exposure to flood risk in coming decades due to changes in rainfall, storm intensity and frequency, and sea level rise. However, there is a relative neglect of this region in the literature on natural hazards and climate change, particularly on how floods in the RRD might affect poor people and different livelihood sectors, how flood risk is understood and acted on, and how flood impacts experienced by households influence local adaptation choices. This article presents research undertaken in 2009- 2010 to understand the impacts of flooding in a typical rural zone (Thai Binh province) of the RRD to assess overall vulnerability, particularly the relationship between poverty, livelihoods, and flood impacts, as well as to assess the range of adaptation and flood risk reduction options currently used. Our findings indicate that while poor households do not appear to be more exposed to floods than others, their incomes are more sensitive to relative impacts from floods. Yet poverty alone did not explain flood vulnerability, as age of household and livelihood sector involvement showed stronger relationships to flood impacts. Flood risk perceptions were also uneven, but poor people did not seem to take less proactive flood risk reduction measures than others. There are few long-term adaptation actions to flooding being taken by households of any income class, and there is a need for better community and government aid after flood events to help households cope with increased flood risks in the RRD, rather than relying on improvements in hard infrastructure, as is currently the dominant approach in the region, particularly given future forecasts of increased rainfall for northern Vietnam under climate change.
This policy brief presents the perceptions, resilience and adaptive capacity of flood-affected communities in Prek Prasop District, Kratie province, Cambodia. It also shows the perceived causes, actual impacts and local responses to hazards at the community level. These are results from eight workshops conducted in June 2016 in four villages in two communes, which encompassed focus group discussions and participatory mapping. This brief confirms that local knowledge is as expert as scientific scholarship, and has complimentary features that hard-core scientific tools (such as satellites) cannot capture. KEY MESSAGES Cambodia is one of the countries with high vulnerabilities to climate change. This susceptibility adversely affects agriculture, on which rural livelihoods depend. To address climate change, an integration of participatory approaches and local knowledge with policies and plans warrants both efficacy and efficiency. A combination of community-based focus group discussions and participatory mapping can provide valuable insights into the spatial and non-spatial knowledge of communities facing climate change and other hazards. These mixed approaches can map how the hazards affect local communities, how the hazards change over time, and identify the direct and indirect drivers of the perceived changes. They also support the transfer of ecological knowledge within the communities and between generations. Results from these approaches add value to scientific scholarship and can accurately inform policy making on external interventions concerning mitigation and adaptation measures.
Chapter 4 Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in Cambodia
This paper presents a case study of drought risk assessment and mitigation in the Svay Rieng province of Cambodia. Drought is a creeping disaster and has debilitating impacts on rural livelihoods and socio-economic conditions. Interviews with local communities, government administration and non-governmental agencies indicated the lack of livelihood options that would reduce the communities' dependence on climate-sensitive sectors, lack of dependable weather forecasts and early warning systems, relief-driven drought management systems and lack of sufficient institutional presence at the local level. Through participatory processes such as focused group discussions, the local communities have identified the drought impacts, root causes and measures to reducing their drought vulnerability, which include making available drought-resistant seeds as well as appropriate cropping strategies which are dynamic enough to change depending on the short-and long-term weather forecasts. There is also a need to move the focus from the drought relief approach, which is well developed in Cambodia, to drought risk mitigation. The study has also identified that spreading drought relief to the entire affected population through well-coordinated institutional mechanisms, establishing irrigation infrastructure and community capacity building in better water management practices are key interventions for reducing drought risks in the study areas in specific and in Cambodia in general.
Perceived community-based flood adaptation strategies under climate change in Nepal
Climate induced natural disasters and extreme events are escalating with the increased variability of climatic parameters due to climate change. This study assesses the flood adaptation strategies that are applicable at the community level in two Terai districts of Nepal. The data were collected through three focus group discussions and 210 household surveys. The study revealed that flood forecasting practices at community level included monitoring the extent of rainfall in upper catchments and identifying the position of clouds. 'Initiate communication', 'take care the affected people', and 'select the appropriate location to stay' were most preferred strategies during the flood. Similarly, 'exchanging helps with each other', 'preparing temporary settlement plan' and 'co-ordinating with government and other agencies' are most preferred post-flood adaptation strategies. Identification and assessment of locally-relevant flood adaptation strategies will help governments to choose adaptation strategies that are both effective and preferred by local people in vulnerable communities.
Risk Analysis, 2007
In this paper we investigate the complex relationship between environmental risk, poverty and vulnerability in a case study carried out in one of the poorest and most flood prone countries in the world, focusing on household and community vulnerability and adaptive coping mechanisms. Based upon the steadily growing amount of literature in this field we develop and test our own analytical model. In a large-scale household survey carried out in the south-east of Bangladesh, we ask almost seven hundred floodplain residents living without any flood protection along the river Meghna about their flood risk exposure, flood problems, flood damage and coping mechanisms. Novel in our study is the explicit testing of the effectiveness of adaptive coping strategies to reduce flood damage costs. We show that, as expected, households with lower income and less access to productive natural assets face higher exposure to risk of flooding. Disparity in income and asset distribution at community level furthermore tends to be higher at higher risk exposure levels, implying that individually vulnerable households are also collectively more vulnerable. Regarding the identification of coping mechanisms to deal with flood events, we look at both the ex ante household level preparedness for flood events and the ex post availability of community level support and disaster relief. We find somewhat paradoxically that the people that face the highest risk of flooding are the least well prepared, both in terms of household-level ex ante preparedness and community-level ex post flood relief. PREM Working Paper: PREM 06/01
Rural livelihoods and household adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
2011
Adaptation to flooding is now widely adopted as an appropriate policy option since flood mitigation measures largely exceed the capability of most developing countries. In wetlands, such as the Okavango Delta, adaptation is more appropriate as these systems serve as natural flood control mechanisms. The Okavango Delta system is subject to annual variability in flooding with extreme floods resulting in adverse impacts on rural livelihoods. This study therefore seeks to improve the general understanding of rural household livelihood adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta. Specific objectives are: (1) to assess household access to forms of capital necessary for enhanced capacity to adapt, (2) to assess the impacts of extreme flooding on household livelihoods, and (3) to identify and assess household livelihood responses to extreme flooding. The study uses the sustainable livelihood and the socio-ecological frameworks to analyse the livelihood patterns and resilience to extreme flooding. Results from a survey of 623 households in five villages, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and review of literature, indicate that access to natural capital was generally high, but low for financial, physical, human and social capital. Households mainly relied on farm-based livelihood activities, some non-farm activities, limited rural trade and public transfers. In 2004 and 2009, extreme flooding resulted in livelihood disruptions in the study areas. The main impacts included crop damage, household displacement, destruction of household property, livestock drowning and mud-trapping, the destruction of public infrastructure and disruption of services. The main household coping strategies were labour switching to other livelihood activities, temporary relocation to less affected areas, use of canoes for early harvesting or evacuation and government assistance, particularly for the most vulnerable households. Household adaptive strategies included livelihood diversification, long-term mobility and training in non-agricultural skills. The study concludes that household capacity to adapt to extreme flooding in the study villages largely depends on access to natural capital. This is threatened by population growth, land use changes, policy shifts, upstream developments, global economic changes and flood variations due to climate variability and change.
International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning
Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by natural disasters in the Asia Pacific. In the context of climate change, natural disasters tend to increase in both frequency and intensity, negatively affecting the livelihoods of communities, especially poor farmers. In Vietnam, the central region is identified as the most vulnerable to natural disasters, especially for poor households with high exposure and low adaptive capacity. This study was conducted in 4 coastal provinces in Central Vietnam to evaluate farmers' perception of natural disaster impacts on livelihoods and their adaptation practices. We employed the analytical framework by DFID and IPCC for households’ capital and livelihood assessment in combination with perception evaluation approach from literature. The method used for analysis include quantitative and qualitative approaches. A survey of 444 farming households randomly selected to collect primary data. In addition, indepth interviews with key informants were...