Assessment of Vulnerability to Cyclones and Floods in Odisha, India: A District-Level Analysis

Abstract

Most of the districts in Odisha, India are prone to both cyclones and floods. However, the existing studies have assessed vulnerability mainly for the coastal districts, and are largely focused on the biophysical components. Therefore, a comprehensive vulnerability assessment will help unravel the scale of vulnerability across the districts of Odisha, and provide a better understanding of the adaptive capacity of households towards these extreme events. An 'integrated approach' was adopted to assess vulnerability which is viewed as a function of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. A number of proxy indicators were considered to represent these components, and a normalization procedure was adopted in order to aggregate them into a single value. Three key observations emerged. First, components like sensitivity and adaptive capacity were found to act as the major determinants of vulnerability. Secondly, eight districts were found to have a higher vulnerability score, and surprisingly, some of the districts are non-coastal. Thirdly, factors like demography, agriculture and economic capacity emerged as the major cause for increasing vulnerability. These results have policy implications in the context of prioritizing limited resources among the vulnerable districts and determinants through the disaster risk management programme at state and district levels.