Caribbean Small-Scale Fishers’ Strategies for Extreme Weather Events: Lessons for Adaptive Capacity from the Dominican Republic and Belize

Understanding how perceptions around motivation, capacity, and climate change’s impacts relate to the adoption of adaptation practices in light of experiences with extreme weather events is important in assessing farmers’ adaptive capacity. However, very little of this work has occurred in islands, which may have different vulnerabilities and capacities for adaptation. Data of surveyed farmers throughout Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (n = 405, 87% response rate) were used in a structural equation model to explore the extent to which their adoption of agricultural practices and management strategies was driven by perceptions of motivation, vulnerability, and capacity as a function of their psychological distance of climate change. Our results show that half of farmers did not adopt any practice or strategy, even though the majority perceived themselves capable and motivated to adapt to climate change, and understood their farms to be vulnerable to future extreme events. Furthermore, adoption was neither linked to these adaptation perceptions, nor to their psychological distance of climate change, which we found to be both near and far. Puerto Rican farmers’ showed a broad awareness of climate change’s impacts both locally and globally in different dimensions (temporal, spatial, and social), and climate distance was not linked to reported damages from Hurricane Maria or to previous extreme weather events. These results suggest that we may be reaching a tipping point for extreme events as a driver for climate belief and action, especially in places where there is a high level of climate change awareness and continued experience of compounded impacts. Further, high perceived capacity and motivation are not linked to actual adaptation behaviors, suggesting that broadening adaptation analyses beyond individual perceptions and capacities as drivers of climate adaptation may give us a better understanding of the determinants to strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity.

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The Assessment of the Refurbished Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Point of the Climate Change

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.899.440 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 899 ◽

pp. 440-445

Author(s):

Sára Hrabovszky-Horváth

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Reinforced Concrete ◽

Built Environment ◽

Adaptive Capacity ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Building Design ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Weather Events

Changes in climate have various impacts on the built environment: e.g. the building design and the materials together with the operation and the maintenance. Therefore, it is extremely important to account for the future weather conditions during both the design of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings. According to the Hungarian meteorological researches as a consequence of the global warming the climate of Hungary is going to become warmer and drier as well as the number and the intensity of the extreme weather events is expected to grow. One of the main directions of actions in the Climate Change Strategy is the adaptation to the changing circumstances, the improvement of the adaptive capacity of the built environment. In this study, the prefabricated reinforced concrete large-panel residential buildings are analysed: a bottom-up methodology was developed based on typological approach to assess the vulnerability of the ‘panel buildings’ to climate change by analysing the extreme weather events. After assessing the sensitivity and the adaptive capacity of the determined building types, their vulnerability to the increased number of windstorms and extreme rainfalls was estimated and the influence of their refurbishment was analysed.

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Vietnam Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment, 2018

Environmental Health Insights ◽

10.1177/1178630220924658 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 117863022092465

Author(s):

Tran Thi Tuyet Hanh ◽

Le Thi Thanh Huong ◽

Nguyen Thi Lien Huong ◽

Tran Nu Quy Linh ◽

Nguyen Huu Quyen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

High Risk ◽

Adaptive Capacity ◽

Health Sector ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Weather Events ◽

Health Vulnerability ◽

The World ◽

Very High

Background: The Global Climate Risk Index 2020 ranked Vietnam as the sixth country in the world most affected by climate variability and extreme weather events over the period 1999-2018. Sea level rise and extreme weather events are projected to be more severe in coming decades, which, without additional action, will increase the number of people at risk of climate-sensitive diseases, challenging the health system. This article summaries the results of a health vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) assessment conducted in Vietnam as evidences for development of the National Climate Change Health Adaptation Plan to 2030. Methods: The assessment followed the first 4 steps outlined in the World Health Organization’s Guidelines in conducting “Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments.” A framework and list of indicators were developed for semi-quantitative assessment for the period 2013 to 2017. Three sets of indicators were selected to assess the level of (1) exposure to climate change and extreme weather events, (2) health sensitivity, and (3) adaptation capacity. The indicators were rated and analyzed using a scoring system from 1 to 5. Results: The results showed that climate-sensitive diseases were common, including dengue fever, diarrheal, influenza, etc, with large burdens of disease that are projected to increase. From 2013 to 2017, the level of “exposure” to climate change–related hazards of the health sector was “high” to “very high,” with an average score from 3.5 to 4.4 (out of 5.0). For “health sensitivity,” the scores decreased from 3.8 in 2013 to 3.5 in 2017, making the overall rating as “high.” For “adaptive capacity,” the scores were from 4.0 to 4.1, which meant adaptive capacity was “very low.” The overall V&A rating in 2013 was “very high risk” (score 4.1) and “high risk” with scores of 3.8 in 2014 and 3.7 in 2015 to 2017. Conclusions: Adaptation actions of the health sector are urgently needed to reduce the vulnerability to climate change in coming decades. Eight adaptation solutions, among recommendations of V&A assessment, were adopted in the National Health Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

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Economic vulnerability of small-scale coastal households to extreme weather events in Southern India

Marine Policy ◽

10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104608 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 131 ◽

pp. 104608

Author(s):

P.S. Sreya ◽

Chitra Parayil ◽

N. Aswathy ◽

Binoo P. Bonny ◽

T.P. Aiswarya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Extreme Weather ◽

Southern India ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Small Scale ◽

Economic Vulnerability ◽

Weather Events

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Evaluating public organization performance under extreme weather events: Does organizational adaptive capacity matter?

Journal of Environmental Management ◽

10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113388 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 296 ◽

pp. 113388

Author(s):

Fengxiu Zhang

Keyword(s):

Adaptive Capacity ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Public Organization ◽

Organization Performance ◽

Weather Events ◽

Public Organization Performance

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Farm households' levels of vulnerability to extreme weather events in South-Eastern Nigeria

African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development ◽

10.18697/ajfand.97.19410 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (02) ◽

pp. 17450-17463

Author(s):

JN Obi ◽

◽

AA Enete ◽

JO Munonye ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Adaptive Capacity ◽

Vulnerability Index ◽

Extreme Weather ◽

Farm Households ◽

Farm Size ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

South Eastern ◽

Weather Events ◽

Farming Households

The impacts of climate change risks, risk management mechanisms, and the physical environment under which farm households operate play significant roles in poverty and hidden hunger dynamics in developing countries. Extreme weather events are most often triggers of changes in risk management, which also affect the capacity of households to absorb the resultant shocks. This paper based on primary data collected as part of a PhD dissertation in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, presents an analysis of farm households’ levels of vulnerability to extreme weather events in South-eastern Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 120male-and 120 female-headed farm households that constituted the sample for the study. Both structured interview schedule and focus group discussion guide were used to gather data from the respondents, which were analyzed using UNDP vulnerability index. Using household adaptive capacity approach, data were collected on human, economic and institutional capacity of farmers in coping with extreme weather events. Female-headed households were more vulnerable than their male-headed counterparts to the effect of extreme weather events with respect to some of the indicators such as farming income, years of formal education, farm size, land ownership status, number of extension contacts, access to weather information, access to remittance, membership of cooperative and assistance from National Emergency Management Agency in the area. Overall, using household adaptive capacity approach, the results of the gender-based vulnerability analysis showed male-headed farming households with a vulnerability index of 0.38 while the female-headed farming households, on the other hand, had vulnerability index of 0.68. Although female-headed farm households were more vulnerable than their male counterparts, the farmers were all generally highly vulnerable to the incidence of natural disasters because of low adaptive capacity. The study recommends that government and development partners with the responsibility of protecting the environment should be gender-sensitive and redirect more effort in mitigating the negative agricultural effects caused by extreme weather events, especially among female-headed farm households who are more vulnerable.

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