Flood vulnerability and its influencing factors

Abstract

Riverine floods are the major weather-related disaster affecting both agriculture production and physical infrastructures in Nepal. Climatic factors aggravated by anthropogenic measures contribute to increasing household-level vulnerability in the country. We use face-to-face interview data collected from 217 households located in the Saptari district of Nepal to understand the household-level vulnerability of farmers impacted by floods. Our model combines variables of household sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and exposure to flooding in an integrated vulnerability index to assess the vulnerability status of households and factors influencing the vulnerabilities. Findings indicate a high vulnerability level of most households stems from higher exposure to flood and lower adaptive capacity. Using the ordinal response model, we find that indicators such as credit access, migration, female-proportion, and perception and familiarity with flood incidences positively influence the vulnerability. However, gender, livestock owned, per capita income, adaptation measures, and distance to water bodies have a negative influence on the vulnerability level. These findings can be used to tailor micro-level policies to minimize the impact of floods in the district. Governmental level effort, such as river control strategy, is needed to minimize the flood risk at a larger scale in the future.