Livelihood Vulnerability of Char Land Communities to Climate Change and Natural Hazards in Bangladesh: An Application of Livelihood Vulnerability Index

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world. In general, Charland (Riverine Island) communities are frequently affected by floods, riverbank erosion, and other climatic hazards, which cause many to lose their sources of livelihoods and properties and making them more vulnerable. Using survey data of 262 rural households, this study investigates the extent of livelihood vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards of the Charland communities by applying the climate change vulnerability index (CVI) (i.e. UN-IPCC vulnerability framework) and the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) to develop context-specific interventions for building climate and livelihood resilience. The two approaches of vulnerability assessment were modified to incorporate local contexts and indigenous knowledge into 41 sub-components. The result shows that LVI and CVI values are different between Charland communities. The LVI index shows that households in Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.148) are more vulnerable than Char Kulaghat (0.139). The CVI values for Char Jotindro-Narayan (0.633) are slightly lower than for Char Kulaghat (0.639). The major vulnerability factors were identified as the social networks, food self-sufficiency, natural disasters, and climatic variability. The study also indicates that flood, riverbank erosion, unemployment, and access to communication, market, and basic service opportunities are the major biophysical and socioeconomic factors determining livelihood vulnerability. The context-specific sustainable policies and development initiatives are required to improve the adaptive capacity of Charland communities across Bangladesh and thereby building their climate and livelihood resilience.

Livelihood Strategies Shape Vulnerability of Households' Food Security to Climate in Senegal

We integrate long-term observations of rainfall and repeat, large-scale, nationwide household surveys of nutrition and socio-economic status to assess the vulnerability of food security to climate in Senegal. We use a mixed methods approach and a vulnerability framework to explain how it is that food security is on average lower, and more variable year-to-year, in the climatologically wetter south and east of the country than in the drier western center and north. We find that it is sensitivity to climate that explains the spatial variation in food security, while exposure explains its temporal variation, but only where sensitivity is high. While households in the western center and north, geographically closer to the political and economic center of action, are less dependent on livelihoods based on climate-sensitive activities, notably agriculture, these activities still dominate in the more remote, landlocked and at times conflict-ridden south and east, where sensitivity to the vagaries of rainfall persists. As they work to strengthen the resilience of climate-sensitive activities, food security and climate-risk management projects and policies should move beyond simplistic, deterministic assumptions about how climate affects food security outcomes, and invest in livelihood diversification to increase rural income and reduce vulnerability of food security to climate.

Assessment of Heatwave Vulnerability in Korea Considering Socio-economic Indices

The rising heatwave occurrences in recent times due to climate change have resulted in increased mortalities and socio-economic damage. Consequently, several studies have been conducted to examine heatwave vulnerability in Korea. However, most of these studies used the IPCC vulnerability framework and weighting techniques, such as the equal weight and AHP methods, which lacked objectivity in the process of calculating vulnerability. This study employed socio-economic data to measure the heatwave vulnerability index for individual local governments in Korea using the principal component analysis and entropy weighting methods. These techniques ensure that the aggregation of proxies and the weighting process remain objective, unlike previous studies. According to the obtained results, rural areas such as Jeollanam-do, Jeollabuk-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Gyeongsangbuk-do, and relatively decrepit urban areas demonstrated high vulnerability scores. In addition, a positive correlation was found between the calculated vulnerability index and mortalities from the recent heatwaves. The heatwave vulnerability index developed in this study can therefore be used to form effective heatwave response policies suited to the conditions of each local government.

Evaluation of the vulnerability in water distribution systems through targeted attacks

This paper presents the results of a vulnerability analysis in different water distribution system (WDS) benchmarks, performed under a framework based on a graph model that integrates topological features and hydraulic characteristics, allowing the comparison between different attack strategies and centrality measures in terms of their ability to predict the shortage of water supply. This vulnerability framework has been previously applied to electric power systems and it employs a vulnerability prediction measure to quantify the amount of damage caused in terms of the physical damage measure. Different attack strategies and centrality measures were applied to four WDS benchmarks: the New York Tunnel, the Hanoi, the Modena, and the Balerma networks. It was determined that removing the most central element and recalculating the centrality for each stage are the most damaging attack strategy. Degree, eigenvector, and Katz centrality measures presented the best performance to predict the elements that are more relevant to the network and can cause a larger impact on the water supply. It was demonstrated that the vulnerability framework can be applied to the WDS in the same way it was previously applied to electric power systems. Future work will be oriented to the design of the WDS using optimization techniques to minimize the vulnerability of the network under faults that can be generated by droughts and other extreme weather conditions.

Financial Preparedness for Emergencies: Age Patterns and Multilevel Vulnerabilities

Guided mainly by the social vulnerability perspective and life course perspective, this study examined age patterns of financial preparedness for emergencies and how they were contextualized by vulnerabilities at the individual and community levels. We matched data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency 2018 National Household Survey and 15 indicators of the Social Vulnerability Index at the county level. Two-level logistic regressions were conducted with the working sample, which included 4,623 respondents from 958 counties. The results showed that adults aged 18 to 44 were more likely than those aged 65 to 74 to set aside money for emergencies among Hispanics, those with minor children in the household, and in communities with higher levels of poverty, higher percentages of minorities, and higher percentages of no vehicles, but less likely to do so among the White and those with insurance. The findings were discussed within a multilevel layered vulnerability framework.

Flood Hazards and Livelihood Vulnerability of Flood-Prone Farm Dependent Bait Households in Punjab, Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the most climate change and natural disasters affected country of the world where livelihood and lives of inhabitants are often affected due to these disasters. In the scenario of various disasters and risks, flood disasters are the most recurrent hazards that causes Bait households livelihood more vulnerable. Hence this research work has focused to investigate livelihood vulnerability of flood-prone Bait households in southern Punjab of Pakistan. This study used multistage sampling technique for collection the cross sectional data of 398 flood disasters vulnerable Bait household’s respondents from three high risks flood-prone districts Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan. Face to face interview procedure and well developed pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection in this research work. This study applied vulnerability framework of LVI-IPCC and LVI in the direction of comparing the level of vulnerabilities in preferred three Bait district households. Empirical estimates of LVI major components and framework of IPCC vulnerability have indicated Bait households of Muzaffargarh more vulnerable owing to higher exposure and sensitivity and lower adaptive capacity rather than other districts. In contrast to other districts Muzaffargarh households have investigated more vulnerable to flood disasters more particularly in LVI sub-components such as health (0.460), water (0.360) and food (0.515) access. These research findings will helpful to policymakers to work out and put into practice effectual programs and strategies such as constructing more water reserves, developing overhead infrastructure, easy access of institutional loans and generating off-farm income sources. These local based feasible measures will helpful for native inhabitants to reducing frequency of floods in the direction of lessen vulnerability and increase resilience via recovering generally the livelihood of vulnerable Bait households in Punjab Pakistan and particularly the district Muzaffargarh.