Households' socio-demographic characteristics, perceived and underestimated vulnerability to floods and related risk reduction in Ghana

Abstract

There is a current upsurge of climate-related disasters globally with urban centres emerging as hotspots for climate risks such as floods, underlain by population growth and urbanization challenges. Yet, the literature on urban floods suggests limited estimates of “perceived vulnerability”, the latter increasingly gaining acceptance in climate change and disaster knowledge communities. Subsequently in this article, the effects of socio-demographic characteristics of households in underestimating their perceived vulnerability to flooding in Ghana is analysed, for informed flood disaster risk reduction. The findings show female headed households and those with college education as relatively more likely to underestimate their vulnerability to floods, compared to male headed households and those with no education, respectively. The age of male household heads determined their underestimation of floods yet the relatiowas non-linear. Additionally, the perceived vulnerability of a household to floods and ability to estimate its status depends on the sex of household head, to potentially influence decision-making and choice of adaptation. In conclusion, differences in the effects of households' background characteristics on perceived vulnerability and capacity to estimate the outcome suggest context specific measures or social interventions in addressing attitudes towards floods disaster risk, and subsequently in formulating disaster risk reduction strategies and policy interventions.