Abstract
Integrating local knowledge and scientific information can aid in co-developing locally relevant approaches for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Communities along the Mekong River have adapted to variability in temperature, rainfall, and flooding patterns over time. Rapid environmental change in the Mekong Basin presents a new set of challenges related to drought, altered seasonal rainfall, more frequent high-flow flood events, and water withdrawals for hydropower and irrigation. We present a multi-method approach to understand how local knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of floods, droughts, and rainfall can be integrated with scientific information along a flood-prone section of the lower Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia. Participatory hazard mapping of community members’ knowledge of the movement of floodwaters through the landscape enabled interpretation of flood extent mapping using Synthetic Aperture Radar images from the Sentinel-1A satellite. Seasonal calendars of weather patterns and livelihood activities, together with local indicators of flooding, rainfall, and drought were compared with trends in 35 years of rainfall data, and highlighted “pressure points” at the beginning and end of the rainy season where agriculture may be particularly impacted by climate change. We discuss potential applications of our findings for adaptation and hazard planning.
Highlights
People living in multi-hazard environments are ideally placed to develop detailed local knowledge of the spatial extent and temporal dynamics of the hazards that affect their livelihoods
We present a multi-method approach to understand how local knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of floods, droughts, and rainfall can be integrated with scientific information along a flood-prone section of the lower Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia
We draw on both sets of benefits to demonstrate the potential for knowledge integration in adaptation planning through a case study from a flood-prone region in Cambodia that is experiencing more frequent and severe droughts
Summary
People living in multi-hazard environments are ideally placed to develop detailed local knowledge of the spatial extent and temporal dynamics of the hazards that affect their livelihoods. The second is that the process of integrating local and scientific knowledge through progressive discussion, evaluation, and scenario development can be an effective way of co-learning and building consensus to appropriately inform management strategies with a greater likelihood of uptake and community support (Reed et al 2007; Fazey et al 2010; Raymond et al 2010). Examples of integrating multiple knowledges are found across river and floodplain management (Hillman 2009), community-based forest management (Mendoza and Prabhu 2005), spatial planning (McCall and Dunn 2012), disaster risk reduction (DRR) (Mercer et al 2007; Hiwasaki et al 2014), weather forecasting (Kniveton et al 2014), and climate change adaptation (Ceccato et al 2011; Gustafson et al 2018). Knowledge integration has the benefit of providing detailed contextual understandings alongside the systematic rigor of quantitative methods (Mendoza and Prabhu 2005)
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