IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i2d10.1007_s10668-020-00687-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate change vulnerability of rural households in flood-prone areas of Himalayan foothills, West Bengal, India

Author

Listed:
  • Manoranjan Ghosh

    (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

  • Somnath Ghosal

    (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur)

Abstract

The Himalayan foothills of West Bengal are a part of the great Eastern Himalaya, which is by locational virtue a recognized flood-prone area. The area is also well known for frequent and heavy rain storms and climate-induced catastrophic events, such as flash floods due to the unprecedented rains in the Bhutan Himalaya. Therefore, climate-induced disasters like floods have been the prime reasons for rural vulnerabilities. Therefore, the primary aim of the present study is to find out whether there are any differences between levels of vulnerability amidst agriculture-dependent villages and forest resource-dependent villages in the same flood-prone area or not. In addition, the study will also examine how the agriculture-dependent villages are different from forest resource-dependent villages in terms of climate vulnerability and vice versa. The climate change vulnerability index has been applied, and a total of 100 households have been surveyed covering seven dimensions of vulnerability. The exposure score was found to be the highest in Raja Bhatkhawa (0.41) followed by Nathuar Char (0.30) and Bhelakoba (0.27). No significant differences were found in terms of climatic exposure except in Mendabari. Further, it has been observed that the resilience factors in households like education, workforce opportunities, health, and institutional accessibility are highly uneven, which has been creating hinders to the adaptive capacity. In the villages where overall vulnerability to climate change was found to be high, the adaptive capacity was found to be low. Simultaneously, in those villages, the sensitivity was found to be high. It has been found that the location of the villages plays an important role when it comes to vulnerability because the forest villages are relatively more vulnerable than the agricultural villages. However, the riverside location of Nathuar Char has made this village highly vulnerable; and the people of Nathuar Char have been living with floods, and they are trying to adapt with climate-induced floods. Finally, it has been observed that vulnerability is context dependent (i.e. based on land resources, accessibility to basic infrastructure, water and sanitation facilities, and awareness to disasters) and varies from household to household.

Suggested Citation

  • Manoranjan Ghosh & Somnath Ghosal, 2021. "Climate change vulnerability of rural households in flood-prone areas of Himalayan foothills, West Bengal, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 2570-2595, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00687-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00687-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00687-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-00687-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wolfgang Cramer & Joël Guiot & Marianela Fader & Joaquim Garrabou & Jean-Pierre Gattuso & Ana Iglesias & Manfred A. Lange & Piero Lionello & Maria Carmen Llasat & Shlomit Paz & Josep Peñuelas & Maria , 2018. "Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(11), pages 972-980, November.
    2. Todd A. Crane & Aogán Delaney & Peter A. Tamás & Sabrina Chesterman & Polly Ericksen, 2017. "A systematic review of local vulnerability to climate change in developing country agriculture," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(4), July.
    3. Lee, Minsoo & Villaruel, Mai Lin & Gaspar, Raymond, 2016. "Effects of Temperature Shocks on Economic Growth and Welfare in Asia," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 501, Asian Development Bank.
    4. Hemanshu Kumar & Rohini Somanathan, 2009. "Mapping Indian Districts Across Census Years, 1971-2001," Working papers 176, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    5. Abid Hussain & Golam Rasul & Bidhubhusan Mahapatra & Sabarnee Tuladhar, 2016. "Household food security in the face of climate change in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(5), pages 921-937, October.
    6. Kam, Suan-Pheng & Hossain, Mahabub & Bose, Manik Lal & Villano, Lorena S., 2005. "Spatial patterns of rural poverty and their relationship with welfare-influencing factors in Bangladesh," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(5-6), pages 551-567.
    7. Paweł Prokop & Adam Walanus, 2017. "Impact of the Darjeeling–Bhutan Himalayan front on rainfall hazard pattern," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(1), pages 387-404, October.
    8. Rahman, H.M. Tuihedur & Mia, Md. Ekhlas & Ford, James D. & Robinson, Brian E. & Hickey, Gordon M., 2018. "Livelihood exposure to climatic stresses in the north-eastern floodplains of Bangladesh," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 199-214.
    9. Rajiv Pandey & ShashidharKumar Jha, 2012. "Climate vulnerability index - measure of climate change vulnerability to communities: a case of rural Lower Himalaya, India," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 487-506, June.
    10. Prem Sagar Chapagain & Motilal Ghimire & Shova Shrestha, 2019. "Status of natural springs in the Melamchi region of the Nepal Himalayas in the context of climate change," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 263-280, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiuhan Tang & Kangning Xiong & Yue Chen & Qi Wang & Bin Ying & Jiayi Zhou, 2022. "A Review of Village Ecosystem Vulnerability and Resilience: Implications for the Rocky Desertification Control," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-17, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manoranjan Ghosh & Somnath Ghosal, 2023. "Geographies of vulnerability to climate change: empirical evidences from the Indian Himalayan foothills," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 405-431, June.
    2. D. Santillán & L. Garrote & A. Iglesias & V. Sotes, 2020. "Climate change risks and adaptation: new indicators for Mediterranean viticulture," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 881-899, May.
    3. David Hidalgo García, 2023. "Evaluation and Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Main Mitigation Measures against Surface Urban Heat Islands in Different Local Climate Zones through Remote Sensing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Morán-Ordóñez, Alejandra & Ameztegui, Aitor & De Cáceres, Miquel & de-Miguel, Sergio & Lefèvre, François & Brotons, Lluís & Coll, Lluís, 2020. "Future trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services in Mediterranean forests under global change scenarios," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    5. Kalra, Aarushi, 2021. "A 'Ghetto' of One's Own: Communal Violence, Residential Segregation and Group Education Outcomes in India," SocArXiv rzjct, Center for Open Science.
    6. Hasan, Rana & Jiang, Yi & Rafols, Radine Michelle, 2021. "Place-based preferential tax policy and industrial development: Evidence from India’s program on industrially backward districts," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Heider, Katharina & Quaranta, Emanuele & García Avilés, José María & Rodriguez Lopez, Juan Miguel & Balbo, Andrea L. & Scheffran, Jürgen, 2022. "Reinventing the wheel – The preservation and potential of traditional water wheels in the terraced irrigated landscapes of the Ricote Valley, southeast Spain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    8. Vasileios A. Tzanakakis & Andrea G. Capodaglio & Andreas N. Angelakis, 2023. "Insights into Global Water Reuse Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-30, August.
    9. Barua, Rashmi & Goel, Prarthna & Sane, Renuka, 2017. "The Effect of Age-Specific Sex Ratios on Crime: Instrumental Variable Estimates from India," Working Papers 17/214, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    10. Sengupta, Shruti & Azam, Mehtabul, 2022. "The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Marriage and Fertility: Evidence from Indian Census," IZA Discussion Papers 15841, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. E. Somanathan & Rohini Somanathan & Anant Sudarshan & Meenu Tewari, 2021. "The Impact of Temperature on Productivity and Labor Supply: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(6), pages 1797-1827.
    12. Roopam Shukla & Ankit Agarwal & Kamna Sachdeva & Juergen Kurths & P. K. Joshi, 2019. "Climate change perception: an analysis of climate change and risk perceptions among farmer types of Indian Western Himalayas," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 103-119, January.
    13. H.M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey, 2020. "An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-26, July.
    14. Siakou, M. & Bruggeman, A. & Eliades, M. & Zoumides, C. & Djuma, H. & Kyriacou, M.C. & Emmanouilidou, M.G. & Spyros, A. & Manolopoulou, E. & Moriana, A., 2021. "Effects of deficit irrigation on ‘Koroneiki’ olive tree growth, physiology and olive oil quality at different harvest dates," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    15. Anupama Shantharaju & Md Aminul Islam & Jarrod M. Kath & Shahbaz Mushtaq & Arun Muniyappa & Lila Singh-Peterson, 2024. "Understanding Constraints and Enablers of Climate Risk Management Strategies: Evidence from Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Regional South India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Terese E. Venus & Stephanie Bilgram & Johannes Sauer & Arun Khatri-Chettri, 2022. "Livelihood vulnerability and climate change: a comparative analysis of smallholders in the Indo-Gangetic plains," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1981-2009, February.
    17. Andi Syah Putra & Guangji Tong & Didit Okta Pribadi, 2020. "Spatial Analysis of Socio-Economic Driving Factors of Food Expenditure Variation between Provinces in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Murakami, Tomoaki & Nakajima, Shinsaku & Takahashi, Taro & Nishihara, Yukinaga & Imai, Asako & Kikushima, Ryousuke & Sato, Takeshi, 2014. "Spatially Varying Impacts of Farmers Markets on Agricultural Land Use," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170668, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Guoyin Xu & Tong Zhao & Rong Wang, 2022. "Research on the Efficiency Measurement and Spatial Spillover Effect of China’s Regional E-Commerce Poverty Alleviation from the Perspective of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    20. Andreas N. Angelakis & Mohammad Valipour & Abdelkader T. Ahmed & Vasileios Tzanakakis & Nikolaos V. Paranychianakis & Jens Krasilnikoff & Renato Drusiani & Larry Mays & Fatma El Gohary & Demetris Kout, 2021. "Water Conflicts: From Ancient to Modern Times and in the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-31, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00687-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.