Household Livelihood Vulnerability to Climate Change in West China.

Jinyu Shen,Yuqi Wang,Wei Duan,Yijing Zhang

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010551

Abstract

Climate change disproportionately affects natural resource-dependent communities in the ecologically vulnerable regions of western China. This study used the household livelihood vulnerability index under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (HLV-IPCC) to assess vulnerability. Data were collected from 823 households in Ningxia, Gansu, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces, these being ecologically vulnerable regions in China. With a composite HLVI-IPCC and multiple regression model, the factors that affect households’ adaptive capability to HLVI-IPCC was estimated. Results indicate that Ningxia is the most vulnerable community, while Guangxi is the least vulnerable community across all indices. Moreover, Gansu has the heaviest sensitivity and exposure to climate change, whereas Ningxia has the highest adaptive capability to climate change. In addition, the age of household head and distance of the home to the town center had significant negative impacts on households’ adaptive capacity to HLVI-IPCC. The results also suggest that the HLVI assessment can provide an effective tool for local authorities to formulate prioritizing strategies with promoting climate-resilient development and increasing long-term adaptive capacity.

Highlights

Climate change disproportionately affects the resource-reliant poor, young, elderly, sick, and otherwise marginalized populations [1]
The results of the data analysis of HLVI for the study communities are reported in Table 4, which shows the actual value (AV) and standard value of each indicator, as well as the minimum and maximum values by respondent households
Data suggest that Ningxia was the most vulnerable to climate change among the communities, with an HLVI of 0.449 compared to Gansu, at 0.439; Yunnan, at

Summary

Introduction

Climate change disproportionately affects the resource-reliant poor, young, elderly, sick, and otherwise marginalized populations [1]. Global climate change has a potential impact on human health, food production, water resources, human health and sustainable development of people around the world [2]. Some vulnerable ecological communities are highly dependent on climate-sensitive natural resources, and the impact on ecosystem services would be more significant in these communities. Households in these communities have limited adaptive capacity regarding the assets available to prepare for or respond to these climatic events [4]. It is important to understand how households’ responses to climate change for achieving the goals of sustainable development are related to the environment [5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion