Choices of Research Methodologies on Climate Change Adaptation Especially Focusing on Agriculture Sector: A Systematic Review

Abstract

A rapid increase in climate researches by applying diverse methodologies and approaches in recent decades. These researches have directly or indirectly contributed in better understanding of climate issues, risks and vulnerabilities. It has improved awareness and capacities of the public and communities to adapt to the vulnerabilities and impacts. It, further, contributes in formulation of climate policies and plans to address climate risks and vulnerabilities at the local and national levels. Appropriate methodologies lead to better results in the researches. This paper has applied systematic review of the published papers (2010 -2017) to understand the general and specific research methodologies in climate discourse especially in Web of Science (WS), Springer Link (SL) and Science Direct (SD). Altogether, 37 journal papers (10 WS, 13 SL and 14 SD) were selected for the detail analysis based on the assessment of abstracts, which was mainly concentrated on research methodologies specializing in agriculture. In the process, the authors have analyzed the contents, research methodologies, data analysis, and geographical coverages. The analysis, further, concentrated on the scope and limitations of the research methodologies used.  Wide-ranging research methodologies are found that are applied by the researchers in the climate change discourse. Some researchers have applied general research methodologies whereas others have used specific research methodologies and model analysis. Furthermore, it is comprehended that the combination of research methodologies and approaches through focus group discussion together with household survey and model analysis is the effective way for the research by using quantitative and qualitative data.