Vulnerable Districts Research Articles

Multi-scale vulnerability assessment for adaptation planning

Vulnerability of communities and natural ecosystems, to potential impacts of climate change in developing countries like India, and the need for adaptation are rapidly emerging as central issues in the debate around policy responses to climate change. The present study presents an approach to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable districts, villages and households in Karnataka State, through a multi-scale assessment of inherent vulnerability to current climate variability. It also identifies the drivers of inherent vulnerability, thereby providing a tool for developing and mainstreaming adaptation strategies, in ongoing developmental or dedicated adaptation programmes. The multi-scale assessment was made for all 30 districts at the state level in Karnataka, about 1220 villages in Chikballapur district, and at the household level for two villages - Gundlapalli and Saddapalli - in Bagepalli taluk of Chikballapur district. At the district, village and household levels, low levels of education and skills are the dominant factors contributing to vulnerability. At the village and household level, the lack of income diversification and livelihood support institutions are key drivers of vulnerability. The approach of multi-scale vulnerability assessment facilitates identification and prioritization of the drivers of vulnerability at different scales, to focus adaptation interventions to address these drivers.

Climate change and health in Bangladesh: a baseline cross-sectional survey

BackgroundBangladesh is facing the unavoidable challenge of adaptation to climate change. However, very little is known in relation to climate change and health. This article provides information on potential climate change impact on health, magnitude of climate-sensitive diseases, and baseline scenarios of health systems to climate variability and change.DesignA cross-sectional study using multistage cluster sampling framework was conducted in 2012 among 6,720 households of 224 rural villages in seven vulnerable districts of Bangladesh. Information was obtained from head of the households using a pretested, interviewer-administered, structured questionnaire. A total of 6,720 individuals participated in the study with written, informed consent.ResultsThe majority of the respondents were from the low-income vulnerable group (60% farmers or day labourers) with an average of 30 years’ stay in their locality. Most of them (96%) had faced extreme weather events, 45% of people had become homeless and displaced for a mean duration of 38 days in the past 10 years. Almost all of the respondents (97.8%) believe that health care expenditure increased after the extreme weather events. Mean annual total health care expenditure was 6,555 Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) (1 USD=77 BDT in 2015) and exclusively out of pocket of the respondents. Incidence of dengue was 1.29 (95% CI 0.65–2.56) and malaria 13.86 (95% CI 6.00–32.01) per 1,000 adult population for 12 months preceding the data collection. Incidence of diarrhoea and pneumonia among under-five children of the households for the preceding month was 10.3% (95% CI 9.16–11.66) and 7.3% (95% CI 6.35–8.46), respectively.ConclusionsThe findings of this survey indicate that climate change has a potential adverse impact on human health in Bangladesh. The magnitude of malaria, dengue, childhood diarrhoea, and pneumonia was high among the vulnerable communities. Community-based adaptation strategy for health could be beneficial to minimise climate change attributed health burden of Bangladesh.

Knowledge and perception about climate change and human health: findings from a baseline survey among vulnerable communities in Bangladesh.

BackgroundBangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change (CC). A basic understanding of public perception on vulnerability, attitude and the risk in relation to CC and health will provide strategic directions for government policy, adaptation strategies and development of community-based guidelines. The objective of this study was to collect community-based data on peoples’ knowledge and perception about CC and its impact on health.MethodsIn 2012, a cross-sectional survey was undertaken among 6720 households of 224 enumeration areas of rural villages geographically distributed in seven vulnerable districts of Bangladesh, with total population of 19,228,598. Thirty households were selected randomly from each enumeration area using the household listing provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). Information was collected from all the 6720 research participants using a structured questionnaire. An observation checklist was used by the interviewers to collect household- and community-related information. In addition, we selected the head of each household as the eligible participant for an interview. Evidence of association between sociodemographic variables and knowledge of CC was explored by cross-tabulation and measured using chi-square tests. Logistic regression models were used to further explore the predictors of knowledge.ResultsThe study revealed that the residents of the rural communities selected for this study largely come from a low socioeconomic background: only 9.6 % had postsecondary education or higher, the majority worked as day labourer or farmer (60 %), and only 10 % earned a monthly income above BDT 12000 (equivalent to US $150 approx.). The majority of the participants (54.2 %) had some knowledge about CC but 45.8 % did not (p < 0.001). The majority of knowledgeable participants (n = 3645) felt excessive temperature as the change of climate (83.2 %). Among all the respondents (n = 6720), 94.5 % perceived change in climate and extreme weather events. Most of them (91.9 %) observed change in rainfall patterns in the last 10 years, and 97.8 % people think their health care expenditure increased after the extreme weather events. Age, educational qualification, monthly income, and occupation were significantly associated with the knowledge about climate change (p < 0.001). People with higher educational level or who live near a school were more knowledgeable about CC and its impact on health.ConclusionsThe knowledge level about CC in our study group was average but the perception and awareness of CC related events and its impact on health was high. The most influential factor leading to understanding of CC and its impact on health was education. School-based intervention could be explored to increase peoples’ knowledge about CC and necessary health adaptation at community level.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2930-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability indices for cyclones in the eastern coastal states of India

Numerous disasters over the past several years have revealed the differential impacts due to social structure, economic conditions and level of infrastructure. This study investigates the vulnerability of eastern coastal states of India from potential cyclones. In this regard, a method is proposed for quantifying the socio-economic and infrastructural vulnerability to potential cyclone in the districts of the eastern coastal states. The variables included in the study are extracted from Census of India (2011) at district level administrative unit. In the analysis, a large number of variables are reduced to a smaller number of factors by using factor analysis, specifically principal component analysis that represents the socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability to potential cyclone. Subsequently, the factor scores have been mapped for spatial analysis using Jenk’s natural break technique. Utilizing socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability indices, the highly vulnerable districts are demonstrated, which are expected to face substantial amount of challenges in coping with cyclones. The highly vulnerable districts require strategies to address the various aspects of socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability. The indices and maps produced in this paper could not only be incorporated for multi-level governance but also to integrate it with the real-time weather forecasts to identify the predictive areas of vulnerability.

A Review on Flood Events for Kelantan River Watershed in Malaysia for Last Decade (2001-2010)

Malaysia is located at tropical zone and high precipitation area that frequently hit by flood events when it is near monsoon season. This hydro hazard has been one of the main concerns for governmental and non-governmental sectors. High floods lead in financial damages and they are related with human’s life. Kelantan watershed is one of the challenging watersheds which mostly suffer from flood events and heavy rainfall events. Flood in Kelantan watershed is related with monetary misfortunes and lives. Clearly, flood have significant influence on various water sectors such water supply, agriculture, human health and ecosystems therefore study of this topic and presentation of available of any data and information can be a valuable baseline for upcoming research in vulnerable case studies. In this study, Kelantan watershed is selected because it is prone to flooding and urban areas classified as vulnerable districts. This overview is discussed on the last decade (2001-2010) floods events in Kelantan.

빈도분석을 통한 온실의 설계 적설심 평가

In this study, snow depth frequency analysis was performed from 69 guaging stations to evaluate design snow depth for green houses. A 30-year recurrence interval snow depth of administrative districts was estimated using the results of snow depth frequency analysis. The design snow depth for green house was assessed and compared with the 30-year recurrence interval snow depth which was calculated in this study. The results show that design snow depth for 77 administrative districts were appropriate out of the 230 administrative districts. Design snow depth for the other 153 administrative districts are lower than the 30-year recurrence interval snow depth. The 30-year recurrence interval snow depth of 61 administrative districts was 1%~10% more than design snow depth, 28 administrative districts was 11%~20% more than design snow depth, 24 administrative districts was 21%~30% more than design snow depth, 40 administrative districts was 30% more than design snow depth. This study is expected to decide vulnerable administrative districts to heavy snow depth and apply improvements of design snow depth for green houses.

Vulnerability and adaptation assessment a way forward for sustainable sectoral development in the purview of climate variability and change: insights from the coast of Tamil Nadu, India

This paper attempts to identify the most vulnerable coastal districts of Tamil Nadu with respect to climate variability. An index-based vulnerability assessment was done choosing groundwater, agriculture, and fisheries sectors. Individual sectors' vulnerability levels vary widely across the districts due to the differences in its physical exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. In the groundwater sector, Villupuram and Thanjavur districts showed very high vulnerability. Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi districts exhibited highest vulnerability with respect to agricultural sector. In the fisheries sector, Thoothukudi and Villupuram districts demonstrated high levels of vulnerability. From the overall composite vulnerability assessment, Thoothukudi and Villupuram districts were found to have extra care and immediate attention as it falls under high to very high vulnerability category in all the three sectors among 13 coastal districts. It implies the need for strengthening the adaptive capacity to tackle this challenge. Adaptations have been identified and prioritised through interaction with the stakeholders using pair wise ranking method. Public awareness on conservation of water resources, changes in the farming practices, improving water efficiency and diversification of market and products and diversified livelihood portfolio got first priority ranking.

화재취약지구의 화재안전성 개선 방안에 관한 연구 - 서울시를 중심으로 -

화재취약지구의 화재안전성 개선 방안에 관한 연구 - 서울시를 중심으로 -

Targeting vulnerable households in urban Burkina Faso: effectiveness of geographical criteria but not of proxy-means testing.

The 2007/2008 food prices hike has increased the interest in social safety nets programmes to fight food insecurity. Targeting the most in need is central to achieve effectiveness of such interventions. In 2009 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a food voucher (FV) programme targeted the 25 000 most vulnerable households (8.3% of the population). Targeting used a two-stage process: first geographical selection of poorest districts (∼90 000 households); then, in those districts, identification of the most vulnerable households according to a proxy-means test (PMT). Targeted households were entitled to receive FV for 1 year. A first survey was conducted at the beginning of the FV distribution on a representative sample of 2273 households drawn from the poorest districts. One year later a second survey, conducted on a subsample of same households (n = 901), identified those who actually received FV (beneficiary). The performance of the whole process was assessed against household food expenditure, used as the reference measure for vulnerability with a cut-off point of 1513 FCFA (corresponding to the 8.3th percentile of the distribution of expenditure). The 'normalized share of transfers going to vulnerable households' (NSTVH), i.e. proportion of FVs allocated to households below the cut-point, was the main criteria of judgement. Almost twice as many FV were allocated to vulnerable households as compared with a theoretical random distribution all over Ouagadougou (NSTVH = 1.85). When considering the sole targeted districts the NSTVH was only 0.84 (i.e. no more effective than a random distribution), meaning that the geographical stage was effective to select vulnerable districts while the PMT did not perform well to identify the most vulnerable households in those districts. Results could have been improved if only targeted households had received FV (NSTVH = 2.61 and 1.18 for the whole Ouagadougou and targeted districts, respectively). Improved targeting procedures or alternate targeting instruments are needed.

Vulnerability of agro-ecological zones in India under the earth system climate model scenarios

India being a developing economy dependent on climate-sensitive sector like agriculture is highly vulnerable to impacts of global climate change. Vulnerability to climate change, however, differs spatially within the country owing to regional differences in exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The study uses the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 2-Earth System (HadGEM-ES) climate projections to assess the dynamics in vulnerability across four climate change exposure scenarios developed using Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). The analysis was carried out at subnational (district) level; the results were interpreted and reported for their corresponding agro-ecological zones. Vulnerability of each district was quantified using indicators capturing climatic variability, ecological and demographic sensitivity, and socio-economic capacity. Our analysis further assigns probabilities to vulnerability classes of all the 579 districts falling under different agro-ecological zones. The results of the vulnerability profile show that Western plains, Northern plains, and central highlands of the arid and semi-arid agro-ecological zones are the most vulnerable regions in the current scenario (1950–2000). In the future scenario (2050), it extends along districts falling within Deccan plateau and Central (Malwa) highlands, lying in the arid and semi-arid zones, along with regions vulnerable in the current scenario, recording the highest vulnerability score across all exposure scenarios. These regions exhibit highest degree of variation in climatic parameters, ecological fragility, socio-economic marginality, and limited accessibility to resources, generating conditions of high vulnerability. The study emphasizes on the priority to take up adaptive management actions in the identified vulnerable districts to not only reduce risks of climate change, but also enhance their inherent capacity to withstand any future changes in climate. It provides a systematic approach to explicitly identify vulnerable regions, where regional planners and policy makers can build on existing adaptation decision-making by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in the context of global change scenario.

Strategic behavior by federal agencies in the allocation of public resources

How do government agencies allocate program resources? Some authors presume that agencies seek to maximize program objectives; others suggest agencies favor the districts important to the president’s election. In addition, agencies may distribute larger program resources to those districts whose congressional representatives are best positioned to help the agency. We examined how federal government agencies responded both to the 2006 election, when control of Congress shifted from the Republican to the Democratic Party, and to the 2010 election, when the House switched from Democratic to Republican control. We used a difference-in-difference analysis to evaluate the impact of each election on the agencies’ allocations of contracts. Agencies generally responded to the elections by allocating more contract resources to districts represented by the winning party. However, federal agencies reacted differently to changing political environments, depending on the characteristics of the agency. For example, after the 2006 election, those agencies with programs favored by Republican members of Congress allocated more resources to Democratic districts. These “Republican agencies” presumably are the most vulnerable to the risk of losing future appropriations. “Democratic agencies” (and “neutral agencies”), facing no significant threats to their appropriations, did not respond to the election as strongly. Finally, more vulnerable districts received the most support, especially by the “Republican agencies.” We reaffirmed these results by using the 2010 congressional elections, in which the political orientations of the districts favored with more contract distributions was reversed.

Cost and impact of scaling up interventions to save lives of mothers and children: taking South Africa closer to MDGs 4 and 5

BackgroundSouth Africa has made substantial progress on child and maternal mortality, yet many avoidable deaths of mothers and children still occur. This analysis identifies priority interventions to be scaled up nationally and projects the potential maternal and child lives saved.DesignWe modelled the impact of maternal, newborn and child interventions using the Lives Saved Tools Projections to 2015 and used realistic coverage increases based on expert opinion considering recent policy change, financial and resource inputs, and observed coverage change. A scenario analysis was undertaken to test the impact of increasing intervention coverage to 95%.ResultsBy 2015, with realistic coverage, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) can reduce to 153 deaths per 100,000 and child mortality to 34 deaths per 1,000 live births. Fifteen interventions, including labour and delivery management, early HIV treatment in pregnancy, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and handwashing with soap, will save an additional 9,000 newborns and children and 1,000 mothers annually. An additional US$370 million (US$7 per capita) will be required annually to scale up these interventions. When intervention coverage is increased to 95%, breastfeeding promotion becomes the top intervention, the MMR reduces to 116 and the child mortality ratio to 23.ConclusionsThe 15 interventions identified were adopted by the National Department of Health, and the Health Minister launched a campaign to encourage Provincial Health Departments to scale up coverage. It is hoped that by focusing on implementing these 15 interventions at high quality, South Africa will reach Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 soon after 2015 and MDG 5 several years later. Focus on HIV and TB during early antenatal care is essential. Strategic gains could be realised by targeting vulnerable populations and districts with the worst health outcomes. The analysis demonstrates the usefulness of priority setting tools and the potential for evidence-based decision making in the health sector.

Assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in Sri Lanka

Climate change is a global phenomenon having its impact and consequences on environmental changes as well as livelihood adaptations. Vulnerability is defined as the degree to which a system is susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change. The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of the vulnerability to climate change that occurs spatially with time to make investment decisions. Analysis was undertaken for 22 districts in Sri Lanka. Indices were formulated based on those developed by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Identification of the functional relationships between indicators and vulnerability were done. All cross sectional data were collected from secondary sources for a 30-year period from 1977 to 2007. Districts were compared in terms of the vulnerability indices. Chi-squares test was employed to find out associations. Badulla was the most exposed district to climate-related events in 1977 and Nuwara-Eliya was the least. In 2007, Kurunegala was the most exposed district and the least was Matara. In 1977, Colombo was the most sensitive district while Mannar was the least sensitive while in 2007, Gampaha was the most sensitive district and Trincomalee was the least. In terms of the adaptation capacity, Jaffna district had the highest capacity in 1997 and Anuradhapura had the lowest. In 2007, Batticaloa District showed the highest adaptation capacity while Anuradhapura showed the lowest. Colombo as the most vulnerable district in 1977 and it remained the same over a 30-year period from 1977 to 2007. Nuwara Eliya and Polonnaruwa had emerged as the least vulnerable districts in 1977 and 2007, respectively. The Chi-square test revealed that the ranking of districts has no concordance with the overall vulnerability. Although the results were not statistically significant, this analysis has provided a sound theoretical base for analyzing vulnerability to climate change. Availability of data for more indicators would have resulted in a more accurate judgment. However, it can be suggested that more attention has to be paid to the most vulnerable areas by launching Government development programmes aiming livelihood and infrastructure improvement. Vulnerability status of the districts must be considered in future policy formulations of the Sri Lankan Government.

Analyzing the Dynamics of Social Vulnerability to Climate Induced Natural Disasters in Orissa, India

Climate induced natural disasters (CINDs) including droughts, floods, cyclones and heat waves have become serious problems to Orissa, a coastal state of India. Fluctuating weather conditions in the state suggest that it is reeling under a climatic chaos. It has been experiencing contrasting weather like heat waves to cyclone and from drought to flood for more than a decade. The dramatic change in state's ecology and weather conditions are perhaps consequences of climate change. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) links vulnerability with climatic change and point out that the vulnerability of a region depends largely on its wealth and poverty, which limits the adaptive capabilities The socio-economic systems of the state like Orissa remains more vulnerable to CIND because of high reliance on natural resources, limited ability to adapt financially and intuitionally, low per capita GDP, acute poverty and lack of safety nets. Vulnerability is social condition of measuring coping ability that differs across the regions, economic sectors and social groups. The historical disparities in the socio-economic structure of the state shaped the social vulnerability of the population and their responses to cope with looming crisis. These disparities are derived from caste, class, occupation, age difference and socially marginalized population which will result into uneven impact of hazards on the various communities in different districts of Orissa. This article examines how the pre-existing social vulnerability within different districts of Orissa interacted with catastrophe to produce socio-spatial pattern recovery. The study aims to develop composite index of social vulnerability (CISV) for the districts of Orissa by using a combination of statistical and spatial approach to improve the ability of poor people to be more resilient to current natural hazards as well as to the risks associated with long-term climate induced natural disasters. The methodology proposed in developing CISV is to overcome the persistent dichotomy in different vulnerability research and also to highlight the priority areas of policy implications in building adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable districts.

Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment of forests in the Indian Western Himalayan region: A case study of Himachal Pradesh, India

Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment at state and regional levels is necessary to develop adaptation strategies for forests in the biogeographically vital Himalayan region. The present study assesses forest ecosystem vulnerability to climate change across Himachal Pradesh and presents the priority districts for vulnerability reduction under ‘current climate’ and ‘future climate’ scenarios. Vulnerability of forests under ‘current climate’ scenario is assessed by adopting indicator-based approach, while the vulnerability under ‘future climate’ scenario is assessed using climate and vegetation impact models. Based on the vulnerability index estimated to present the vulnerability of forests under current and projected climate change impacts representing climate driven vulnerability, five districts – Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi and Shimla are identified as priority forest districts for adaptation planning. Identifying vulnerable forest districts and forests will help policy makers and forest managers to prioritize resource allocation and forest management interventions, to restore health and productivity of forests and to build long-term resilience to climate change.

Evidences from Farmer Participatory Technology Demonstrations to Combat Increasing Climate Uncertainty in Rainfed Agriculture in India

Rainfed agriculture with nearly 58% of the cultivated area is home to about 40% of human and 60% of livestock population in India and contributes 40% of the country's food production. Even after full realizing the full irrigation potential of the country, half of the cultivated area will continue to be under rainfed farming which highly dependent on monsoon rainfall. It is widely believed that increasing rainfall variability is likely to affect the livelihoods of millions of small and marginal farmers in the years to come. The National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was initiated in 2011 to primarily strengthen research to address climate change and to demonstrate proven resilient practices in most climate vulnerable parts of the country. Farmer participatory technology demonstrations are being carried out since 2011-12 in 100 vulnerable districts prone to recurrent drought, floods, and extreme weather events like cyclone, heat and cold wave. Interventions broadly fall into four modules related to natural resource management (NRM), crop, livestock and fisheries production systems and capacity building. During these three years, rainfall variability such as delayed onset and prolonged breaks in monsoon was experienced in several parts of the country. A total of 1259 NRM interventions to impact resilience through in situ soil moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting and efficient recycling were demonstrated, which resulted in a significant increase in crop yields by about 20-40% even under variable rainfall situations. Short duration, drought and flood tolerant varieties in paddy, pulses and oilseeds crops were demonstrated in about 2700ha covering 7831 farmers with adaptation gains ranging from 10 to 31% [1,2]. Some of the climate resilient practices and technologies which have been found promising are being mainstreamed into the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), a flagship government initiative for enhancing productivity and resilience of Indian agriculture in accordance with the stated aim of the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC).

주유소 기반의 전기자동차 충전인프라 구축에 대한 취약지역 분석

ABSTRACT : Car exhaust emissions are recognized as one of the key sources for climate change and electric vehicles have no emissions from tailpipe. However, the limited charging infrastructures could restrict the propagation of electric vehicles. The purpose of this study is to find the vulnerable districts limited to the charging station services after meeting the goal of Ministry of Knowledge Economy(12%). We assumed that the charging service can be provided by current gas stations. The range of the vulnerable grades was determined by the accessibility to current gas stations and the vulnerable regions were classified considering the optimal number of charging stations estimated by the efficiency function. We used 4,827 sub-municipal divisions and 11,677 gas station locations for this analysis. The results show that most of mountain areas are vulnerable and the fringe areas of large cities generally get a good grade for the charging infrastructure. The gangwon-do, jeollanam-do, gyeongsangbuk-do, and chungcheongnam-do include more than 40% vulnerable districts.Key words : Accessibility, Application Rate, Electronic Vehicles, Gas Station

Assessment of Vulnerability to Cyclones and Floods in Odisha, India: A District-Level Analysis

Most of the districts in Odisha, India are prone to both cyclones and floods. However, the existing studies have assessed vulnerability mainly for the coastal districts, and are largely focused on the biophysical components. Therefore, a comprehensive vulnerability assessment will help unravel the scale of vulnerability across the districts of Odisha, and provide a better understanding of the adaptive capacity of households towards these extreme events. An 'integrated approach' was adopted to assess vulnerability which is viewed as a function of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. A number of proxy indicators were considered to represent these components, and a normalization procedure was adopted in order to aggregate them into a single value. Three key observations emerged. First, components like sensitivity and adaptive capacity were found to act as the major determinants of vulnerability. Secondly, eight districts were found to have a higher vulnerability score, and surprisingly, some of the districts are non-coastal. Thirdly, factors like demography, agriculture and economic capacity emerged as the major cause for increasing vulnerability. These results have policy implications in the context of prioritizing limited resources among the vulnerable districts and determinants through the disaster risk management programme at state and district levels.

Climate Change Vulnerability in Agriculture Sector: Indexing and Mapping of Four Southern Indian States

Agriculture is the sector most vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on climate and weather conditions. Climate change is a main challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihoods for millions of people in India. Among India’s population of more than one billion people, about 68% are directly or indirectly involved in the agricultural sector. This sector is particularly vulnerable to present-day climate variability. In this paper an attempt is made to map and analyze the vulnerability to climate change in different districts of four south Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. We have taken five sources of vulnerability indicators: socio-demographic, climatic, agricultural, occupational and common property resources vulnerabilities to compute the composite vulnerability index. The composite vulnerability index suggests that, Adilabad, Chamarajanagar, Thiruvarur and Kasaragod are the most vulnerable districts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively, whereas Hyderabad, Belgaum, Thoothukkudi, Kottayam are the least vulnerable districts.

Prioritising development planning in the Indian semi-arid Deccan using sustainable livelihood security index approach

This paper presents the status of sustainable livelihood security index (SLSI) of Karnataka, the most drought prone state in the Southern part of India. Computation of ecological security index, economic efficiency index and social equity index, and finally SLSI were carried out at the district level for the entire state, using empirical data. The selected indicators were first normalised, and then using estimated weights, indices were computed. The results indicate that the state has a very low SLSI with only 27.6% of total geographical area (TGA) and 21.7% of population being placed in the ‘sustainable’ and ‘highly sustainable’ categories (covering 10 districts) while only 34% of the TGA covering six districts falls in the ‘moderately sustainable’ category. The remaining area, confined mostly to the northern parts of the state, comprising 14 districts (51.8% of the state’s TGA) is categorised as ‘less sustainable’ and ‘very less sustainable’ exposing 44.4% (27.14 million) of state’s population to the perils of uncertain rainfall, high soil erosion rates, high social inequality and poor resource use efficiency. There is an urgent need to reorient development programmes and prioritise development investments in these vulnerable districts so that they are provided resources and opportunities to improve their ecological (more forest cover and less soil erosion), economic (higher agricultural productivity) and social (improved health and education facilities and rural infrastructure) status and achieve sustainable levels of livelihood.