Climate change-triggered vulnerability assessment of the flood-prone communities in Bangladesh: A gender perspective

Abstract

Despite a significant development in vulnerability scholarship, how climatic drivers compounding with non-climatic forces cause differential vulnerability to climatic change is very scant. The purpose of this research is to illustrate the differential vulnerability of rural populations to floods in Bangladesh. To achieve this goal, empirical data – both primary and secondary – were procured. A quantitative research design was applied using a structured interview technique to collect field data. Secondary data on rainfall and temperature were collected from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD). We assessed gender differential vulnerability using Hahn et al.’s Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI). Our empirical findings revealed that women had a greater vulnerability to flooding with an LVI score of 0.550 compared to their men counterparts (0.484). Vulnerability varies in terms of health, water, food, sanitation, socio-demographic aptitudes, and agriculture-based livelihood, and floods. We also found that women's adaptive capacities (e.g., knowledge, and skills) were more potential to undermine flood vulnerability. While both men and women experienced high flood exposure, women were highly sensitive to flood hazards because of their social roles, locations, unequal access to decision-making power, and resource entitlements. Also, the intersection of diverse social disparities undermines adaptive capacity and reshapes exposure and sensitivity to floods. Our research, therefore, suggested that risk-driven plans and policy interventions are required to reduce the impacts of intersectional factors that cause greater gender-differentiated vulnerability. Future research further can examine how places and multifaced social factors interact and intersect in producing differential susceptibility to climate change in the developing world.