Abstract
South Asia is vulnerable to a variety of hydrometeorological hazards, which are often cross-boundary in nature. Climate change is expected to influence many of these hazards. Thus, climate-related risks over South Asia make disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) key policy goals. Recently there is an increasing consensus that DRR including CCA should be embedded in development planning. Disaster risk reduction including CCA has progressively gained importance in global governance. Across South Asia, however, such integration is only in a preliminary stage. This review was to assess the existing status and scope of DRR including CCA in development projects across South Asia, so that an effective and achievable deliberation may be made to regional policymakers. A total of 371 projects relevant to CCA and DRR were reviewed. The project inventory was diverse in nature with respect to location, scale, sectoral focus, and strategic importance. Bangladesh, India, and Bhutan were observed to be proactive in implementing DRR- and CCA-related projects. Meta-analysis of the project inventory suggests an urgent need for an individual and collaborative convergence of processes for DRR and CCA through policies, plans, strategies, and programs.
Highlights
Climate-related disasters in the South Asian region are becoming more frequent, destructive, and costlier in terms of both economic and social impacts (UNISDR 2011; Bhatt et al 2015)
The rural population across South Asia still survives on agriculture, which is regarded as the principal employment opportunity of more than 60% of its population
Documents based on review of reports, minutes, lectures, case studies, projects, and literature on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) from various sources, including South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states have been thoroughly analyzed to explore the promising areas of regional cooperation
Summary
Climate-related disasters in the South Asian region are becoming more frequent, destructive, and costlier in terms of both economic and social impacts (UNISDR 2011; Bhatt et al 2015). Suggestions of increases in the frequency, intensity, and severity of climate-related disasters call for better integration of DRR and CCA in order to reduce vulnerability and increase population resilience, especially over the South Asian region (Seidler et al 2018). In recent years through proper implementation of early warning systems, improved preparedness, exposure reduction, and efficient management plan there has been a reduction in damages by hydrometeorological hazards This essentially indicates that any disaster is possibly an interface between an extreme physical phenomenon (be it natural or anthropogenic) and human population, and it is the extent of population vulnerability that transforms a hazard to a disaster, not directly the nature itself (O’Keefe et al 1976). Efforts have been made to understand the process of such evolution and recognize any attempts at possible DRR including CCA within the South Asian context
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