Vulnerable Villages Research Articles

Assessing climate change vulnerability: A village level analysis of the Indian west coast

The Indian west coast is under constant threat from climate change-induced hazards. Various social, economic, and infrastructural disparities along the coast cause significant variations in climate vulnerability. Current literature assesses vulnerability either over (1) a large area with poor spatial resolution or (2) a local area with better spatial resolution. The former assessments provide more comprehensive and broad insights into large spatial trends of vulnerability, while the latter provide more accurate and specific inputs needed by the local governments for effective intervention. However, there is a lack of studies that assess vulnerability simultaneously at a high-resolution and over a large geographic area, due to inadequacies in existing methodologies and difficulty in data management and analysis. This is a key gap that we address in our paper. We assess climate vulnerability of the entire Indian west coast at the village level, and propose a novel machine-learning based methodology tailored for high-resolution assessment over large geographic areas. This helped us produce the first high-resolution (i.e. village-level) climate vulnerability map of the entire Indian west coast. We found that the state of Maharashtra has the highest number of vulnerable villages and the state of Kerala has the least number of vulnerable villages. We collate and utilize a large dataset of 112 indicators describing socioeconomic characteristics, infrastructure and availability of financial services, among other aspects, to obtain a comprehensive picture of vulnerability. We analyze geospatial trends and attribute high vulnerability to specific indicators, which will help in effective decision-making at the village level.

Innovation in coastal governance: management and expectations of the UK’s first sandscaping scheme

Many coastal places around the UK face change, with impacts on communities, livelihoods, and landscapes. A tidal surge in 2013 caused significant erosion and flooding on the east coast of England (UK). This was the catalyst for the innovative Bacton to Walcott Coastal Management Scheme, also known as the Sandscaping Scheme, implemented in summer 2019. It is a one-off, large-scale beach nourishment scheme with a design prediction of 15–20 years functional life, the first of its kind in the UK and worldwide outside of the Netherlands. Through stakeholder interviews and a household questionnaire survey, this paper examines the institutional and political challenges, expectations, and hopes associated with this Scheme just before its implementation. The findings indicate that a combination of factors enabled technical and institutional experimentation and innovation at this location: critical erosion risk at a site of strategic infrastructure adjacent to two highly vulnerable villages, extensive stakeholder collaboration across scales, resolute leadership, and recognition of co-benefits. Although most interviewees and local residents foresaw significant benefit from the Scheme—not least respite from the deep anxiety caused by the threat of flooding and erosion risk—tensions were expressed around uncertainty beyond the Scheme’s lifetime and the need to start effective conversations about future adaptation options for the area. This study provides reflections for similar nature-based coastal management schemes elsewhere. It highlights the fundamental challenges facing the governance of natural and social coastal systems for adapting to current and future coastal change and the importance of articulating local and sometimes intangible understandings and expectations of adaptive coastal management interventions.

Assessing socio-economic vulnerability to riverbank erosion in the Middle Brahmaputra floodplains of Assam, India

Riverbank erosion is a catastrophic phenomenon that has rendered floodplains worldwide vulnerable and has significantly impacted millions of people. This article aims to examine the relative status of socio-economic vulnerability to riverbank erosion at the village level in the Middle Brahmaputra floodplains of Assam, India, by constructing a socio-economic vulnerability index (SeVI). The index was constructed based on the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) approach by integrating the three components of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Data on the site-specific indicators of these components were collected through a field survey of 508 households from 18 villages. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between vulnerability and its components. The SeVI analysis revealed that eight villages were highly vulnerable to bank erosion while seven and three villages experienced moderate and low vulnerability respectively. High vulnerability is attributed to displacement of erosion-affected people, soil degradation, land use land cover (LULC) changes and poor performance in the fields of health, education, economy, infrastructure and agriculture. The regression analysis indicated that the degree of vulnerability was mostly impacted by exposure followed by sensitivity. The study calls for infrastructural upgradation, improvements in education and healthcare facilities, construction of erosion control structures, use of geotextiles, application of bioengineering techniques and adoption of traditional knowledge to reduce the level of vulnerability. The SeVI as a planning tool has not only identified the vulnerable villages but also helped in setting priorities for socio-economic development. Thus, the methodological framework adopted in this study may be utilized by other geographical regions for assessing vulnerability and safeguarding the communities from the risk of bank erosion.

Future projections of worst floods and dam break analysis in Mahanadi River Basin under CMIP6 climate change scenarios.

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the hydrological effects and flood risks of the Hirakud Reservoir, considering different CMIP6 climate change scenarios. Using the HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS models, the study evaluates future flow patterns and the potential repercussions of dam breaches. The following summary of the work: firstly, the HEC-HMS model is calibrated and validated using daily stage-discharge observations from the Basantpur station. With coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.764 and 0.858 for calibration and validation, respectively, the model demonstrates satisfactory performance. Secondly, The HEC-HMS model predicts future flow for the Hirakud Reservoir under three climate change scenarios (SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5) and for three future periods (near future, mid future and far future). Thirdly, by analyzing time-series hydrographs, the study identifies peak flooding events. In addition, the HEC-RAS model is used to assess the effects of dam breaches. Downstream of the Hirakud Dam, the analysis highlights potential inundation areas and depth variations. The study determines the following inundation areas for the worst flood scenarios: 3651.52 km2, 2931.46 km2 and 4207.6 km2 for the near-future, mid-future and far-future periods, respectively. In addition, the utmost flood depths for these scenarios are determined to be 31 m, 29 m and 39 m for the respective future periods. The study area identifies 105 vulnerable villages and several towns. This study emphasizes the importance of contemplating climate change scenarios and implementing proactive measures to mitigate the peak flooding events in the Hirakud reservoir region.

Coastal vulnerability map of Jagatsinghpur District, Odisha, India: A satellite based approach to develop two-dimensional vulnerability maps

Assessment of coastal vulnerability has achieved a recent pace due to the increasing frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones and anticipated sea-level rise. The coastal vulnerability is often assessed along the shoreline and it fails to capture the inland physical variabilities. During storm surge, rivers and creeks act as carriers that induce inundation to the low-lying inland areas causing damage to the invaluable coastal livelihood. The study addresses this gap by developing an approach to assess the vulnerability of a coastal inland as two-dimensional vulnerability maps that captures the physical and demographic variabilities of the inland region. We have estimated the coastal vulnerability for Jagatsinghpur District, Odisha, along the eastern Indian coast using coastal landforms, elevation, creek order, proximity to the creek, proximity to the open coast as the physical variables. The analysis resulted in the classification of 31 villages as highly vulnerable that are mostly located over swales and low-lying areas adjacent to creeks. More than half of the villages are located away from the shoreline, which are not considered in the conventional method of vulnerability assessment. Further, we assessed the social vulnerability of the 31 vulnerable villages and the composite map identified 18 villages as highly vulnerable, out of which 9 villages are located away from the shoreline. As the drainage network carry the surge water landwards, the vulnerability estimation have to consider the physical and social characteristics of the coastal inland region. The study finds its applicability in identifying the vulnerable areas along the coast for disaster reduction under a climate change scenario.

Urban growth modelling and social vulnerability assessment for a hazardous Kathmandu Valley

In our rapidly urbanizing world, many hazard-prone regions face significant challenges regarding risk-informed urban development. This study addresses this issue by investigating evolving spatial interactions between natural hazards, ever-increasing urban areas, and social vulnerability in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The methodology considers: (1) the characterization of flood hazard and liquefaction susceptibility using pre-existing global models; (2) the simulation of future urban built-up areas using the cellular-automata SLEUTH model; and (3) the assessment of social vulnerability, using a composite index tailored for the case-study area. Results show that built-up areas in Kathmandu Valley will increase to 352 km2 by 2050, effectively doubling the equivalent 2018 figure. The most socially vulnerable villages will account for 29% of built-up areas in 2050, 11% more than current levels. Built-up areas in the 100-year and 1000-year return period floodplains will respectively increase from 38 km2 and 49 km2 today to 83 km2 and 108 km2 in 2050. Additionally, built-up areas in liquefaction-susceptible zones will expand by 13 km2 to 47 km2. This study illustrates how, where, and to which extent risks from natural hazards can evolve in socially vulnerable regions. Ultimately, it emphasizes an urgent need to implement effective policy measures for reducing tomorrow's natural-hazard risks.

Comprehending landslides from the Locals of landslide vulnerable villages: A general field observation

Comprehending landslides from the Locals of landslide vulnerable villages: A general field observation

Heat vulnerability and extreme heat risk at the metropolitan scale: A case study of Taipei metropolitan area, Taiwan

Global climate change has intensified extreme climate events, such as torrential rain, heavy snow, heatwaves, and droughts. Among all extreme disaster events, extreme heat might lead to long and intensified heatwaves and seriously impact human living environments and ecological habitats. This study applies remote sensing to identify the spatial variation in extreme heat and principal component analysis (PCA) to explore the spatial distribution of the heat vulnerability index in the Taipei metropolitan area. Finally, a bivariate local indicator of spatial association (bivariate LISA) is used to explore the relationship between extreme heat and the heat vulnerability index. The results show that most vulnerable villages are clustered in downtown Taipei. In addition, the bivariate LISA results show an aggregation of 346 high-high clusters, indicating extreme heat and relatively high vulnerability clustered in particular areas. The findings of this study could provide the basis for proposing adequate resilience strategies for areas suffering from extreme heat based on the heat vulnerability composition.

Development of the flood vulnerability index using a multi-element approach

The problem of flood vulnerability has been reviewed in several studies, however, the reviews focused exclusively either on the social or on the physical component of the problem. The components of flood vulnerability are interdependent and each of them makes an equally important contribution to the flood vulnerability index. This study identifies and evaluates the integrated flood vulnerability index ( FVI) of an area by considering its multiple components (social, economic, and environmental). The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied to evaluate the weight of each component. The evaluation was based on the judgements of experts working at local government policy- making agencies. The input data for the AHP were acquired through a questionnaire survey. Eleven indicators that delivered significant results were then selected. The FVI results show high flood vulnerability at the local scale. The FVI provides the basis for the identification of villages with high vulnerability indices. The results provide essential information about pluvial flood vulnerability at the local scale, about the area with the highest vulnerability index, and the most vulnerable villages. The results also show that the components that have a significant impact on the flood vulnerability index include environmental components (43.4%), social components (28.5%), and physical components (28.1%).

Impact assessment of weather based agro-advisory services of Indus plain farming community under cold arid Ladakh

The study was conducted to evaluate the impact assessment of adoption of weather prediction using traditional knowledge and IMD based HMAARI Agro Advisory Services to understand the utilization efficiency of natural resources under cold arid region of Ladakh and to identify socio-economic status of agriculture farmers, their source of information, perception of farmers and their knowledge response carried out at High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute, SKUAST (K), Leh-Ladakh. Total 100 farmers from AgroMet registered 3 villages of Leh region were randomly selected using multistage sampling technique. Socio-economic characteristics of respondents revealed that although before using advisory services, majority of the farming community were using traditional knowledge system to predict precipitation / temperature forecasting to interpret weather conditions. With the introduce of advisory services, it was recorded that old-aged farmers started using advisory services to the tune of 42 per cent. While more than 50 per cent of selected farmers (middle-aged non-registered under Agro-Met advisory services) utilized traditional prediction even under the changing climate. Education and land holding size were the most important factors influenced adoption culture of weather based Agro Advisory Services in the region. It was interesting that the old-aged people/farmers are the major source of information for traditional knowledge, have integrated and adopted the advisory services for weather prediction. As this advisory service scheme provided comprehensive information for agricultural operations. Majority (80%) selected farmers reported their satisfaction with present system of Agromet Advisory Bulletins, being issued biweekly. Whereas, the non-registered farmers of vulnerable villages in Ladakh region showed less knowledge about advisory service and its weather interpreted perdition.

WebFRIS: An efficient web-based decision support tool to disseminate end-to-end risk information for flood management

The present study describes the development of a web-based flood risk information system ‘WebFRIS’ for Jagatsinghpur district, a severely flood-prone region in Eastern India. The WebFRIS is designed by using various readily available open-source web tools and packages such as Google Map, PHP, MySQL, and JSON. Special emphasis is directed towards designing the layout and architecture, to be easily accessible by any end-user irrespective of any technical know-how. The WebFRIS illustrates spatial maps of flood hazard, socio-economic vulnerability, and flood risk at the village level for two-time scenarios. While analyzing a set of graphical statistics depicting the changes in flood risk components, a significant increase in high and very-high categories of both flood hazard (~140%) and socio-economically vulnerable villages (~68%) is noticed during Scenario-I. The number of villages facing compound risk (contributed equally by flood hazard and socio-economic vulnerability) nearly doubled in Scenario-I. A spatial analysis of diametric changes in flood risk shows that a large proportion of villages in Balikuda, Ersama, and Tirtol tehsils have undergone radical changes. Following these observations, a set of possible engineering, social, and policy measures are proposed, whose implementation in the near future is expected to reinforce flood management in the study area. The WebFRIS architecture is flexible, easy-to-use; it is expected to provide crucial lessons to the local bodies, town-planners, water professionals, flood experts, and also the citizens, a precious knowledge on flood risk management. The WebFRIS may be considered as a precious cartographic product for environmental management. The proposed web platform is generic, as it can be applied to study other inter-related systems such as environmental protection, land-use planning, coastal habitat restoration, and community resilience building.Software and data availabilityName: Web Flood Risk Information System -WebFRISDeveloper: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, MumbaiContact Information: (1) Mohit P. Mohanty: mohit2012.env@gmail.com; Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, and (2) Subhankar Karmakar: skarmakar@iitb.ac.in; Environmental Science and Engineering Department (http://www.esed.iitb.ac.in/), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India.Software(s) required: Internet browser (latest versions are recommended), and MIKE FLOOD 2018 or higher (https://www.mikepoweredbydhi.com/products/mike-flood).Programming languages: HTML, PhP, MySQL, JSONAvailability and cost: Any user can access WebFRIS for no cost at https://webfrisiitb.com/. The login credentials for entering WebFRIS are available with reasonable requests to the authors. The flood model set-up and input data are not available freely due to data confidentiality.

Assessment of Social Vulnerability to Kiematubu Volcano in Tidore Island, North Maluku

Kiematubu volcano is often considered as non-volcanic, even though it consists of basalt material, since it has never erupted before. In fact, that small volcanic islands have a high risk due to their restriction on means and resources. The study aims to assess the social vulnerability of the community in Tidore Island that may be exposed to the eruption of the Kiematubu volcano. There has not been previous research in Tidore Island regarding volcanic vulnerability yet. The social vulnerability is an initial assessment of disaster management, which will affect in optimizing community’s capacity then minimizing the disaster impacts. Social parameter of demographic condition, health facilities, and education facilities was weighted to assess social vulnerability. The result shows that the social vulnerability class of Tidore Island is dominantly low, approximately 80%, the rest is middle and high, with a percentage of 13% and 7%, respectively. Mostly, the low vulnerable villages are due to less population density. However, the highly vulnerable villages, Gamtufkange and Indonesiana, consist of very high and high population density. The southeast part of Tidore Island, where both villages are situated, is the center of human activities, such as governmental, trades, and education.

Micro-level Assessment of Rural Societal Vulnerability of Coastal Regions: An Insight into Sagar Island, West Bengal, India

Most of the villages in coastal blocks of West Bengal, India, are prone to both cyclones and coastal and river flooding. Very severe cyclones in recent time (e.g., Sidr, Aila, Fani, Bulbul, and Amphan) exposed the coastal population livelihood at stake. Displacement and migration are very much evident due to such extreme events. However, the existing study examines the nature of societal vulnerability mainly for the coastal villages that focus on the biophysical components. An ‘integrated approach’ was adopted to assess the societal 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 normalisation procedure was adopted in order to aggregate them into a single value. Three key observations emerged. First, components such as sensitivity and adaptive capacity were found to act as the major determinants of vulnerability. Second, eight mouzas were found to have a higher vulnerability score, and surprisingly, some of the mouzas are non-coastal. Third, factors such as demography, agriculture and economic capacity emerged as the major cause for increasing vulnerability. These results have policy implications in the context of prioritising limited resources among the vulnerable villages and determinants through the disaster risk management programme at the district and block levels.

Towards Understanding Collective Distress: A Study of Distressed Communities in Vidarbha, India

Agrarian crisis and farmer's suicide is a serious concern in many countries across the world, including India, which has the largest body of small farmers. Though large regions are identified as highly distressed, research has been limited to individual suicidal behavior. Exploration among the general population to understand context-specific factors contributing to collective distress have been almost non-existent and this paper addresses this gap. In this study, the authors conceptualize and test a psychosocial framework using structural equation models to identify factors contributing to distress. A systematic random sampling technique was used to sample 10,402 respondents from 320 vulnerable villages in six districts of Vidarbha. The analysis identifies stressors as a domain that increases distress. The protective factors’ role in moderating distress was minimal. The individual social status characteristics had a significant contribution in explaining the variation in distress. The study provides a road map for future research to establish broad social characteristics that determine distress and enable informed policy formulation and practice.

A new bivariate risk classifier for flood management considering hazard and socio-economic dimensions

Identification of flood-risk dynamics is pivotal for refurbishing the existing and future flood-management options. The present study quantifies the marginal and compound contributions of hazard and vulnerability to flood-risk through an innovative concept of Risk-classifier, designed in the form of a 5 × 5 choropleth. The proposed framework is demonstrated at the finest administrative scale of village-level over Jagatsinghpur district in Mahanadi River basin, Odisha (India) for two-time frames: Scenario-I (1970–2011) and Scenario-II (1970–2001). An increase in high and very high hazard and vulnerable villages is noticed in Scenario-I, the majority of them lying in the coastal stretches (S-E region) and adjoining flood plains of Mahanadi River (N–W region). Scenario-I is characterized by the majority of hazard-driven and compound (both hazard and vulnerability) risk villages, while Scenario II is characterized by a majority of vulnerability driven-risk villages. For the vulnerability-driven risk villages, rigorous enforcement of policies and mitigation schemes are recommended, while for hazard-driven risk villages, enhancement of structural measures and flood-plain zoning should be exercised. Such exhaustive flood-risk information may serve as a valuable cartographic product for the civic authorities and stakeholders and help in prioritizing flood mitigation actions for improved environmental planning and management.

Methodology for assessing vulnerability and climate risk of villages in Citarum River Basin, West Java, Indonesia

River basins provide homes and livelihoods to millions of people and play important roles in providing water for agriculture, drinking, industry and sewage as well as for hydropower energy production. The threat of climate change on water resources is serious and has to be taken into account in developing short, medium, and long-term development and management plans of river basins. The competition for water resources is projected to increase significantly, not only because of growing global population but also due to increasing demands from industry and agriculture. The impacts of climate change will put further stresses on water resources with projected changes in precipitation patterns. Potentially, more extreme rainfall events will occur, which will cause increased runoff and leave less water available to recharge the groundwater. The study assessed the overall vulnerability profile of the villages over the 2005 to 2011 period. The vulnerability assessment showed that villages classified as ‘very vulnerable’ are characterised by seven key areas: limited access to clean water particularly during the dry season, many households and buildings being located near the river banks, main economic activities being dependent on agriculture, limited access to electricity, lack of education, and health facilities. There were 17 very vulnerable villages in 2011 in the CRB. The current level of climate risk in these villages is still medium, but in the future the risk will increase significantly. Immediate adaptation actions (within 1 to 5 years) are recommended for 25 villages. Short term adaptation actions (within 5 to 10 years) are recommended for over 100 villages.

Coastal Social Vulnerability and Risk Analysis for Cyclone Hazard Along the Andhra Pradesh, East Coast of India

People around the world are prone to frequent and intensive hazards due to the global climate change scenario and human interventions. Particularly, the coastal communities are always prone to various long-term coastal hazards like sea-level rise, shoreline changes, and short-term hazards like tsunami cyclone and storm surge. Coastal Andhra Pradesh state is consisting of 9 district and 670 villages and also having 3.43 Million Population (69.3%). Andhra Pradesh has a vast 972 km long coastline and total coastal area spread over 92,906 km2 comprising the nine coastal districts. Andhra Pradesh state is prone to various natural hazards, especially cyclone and associated storm surges. There is an extreme loss of life and damage to properties caused by these cyclones. During the past 40 years Andhra Pradesh coast experienced more than 62 cyclones including depression, cyclone surge, and severe cyclone surges. Among these cyclones, there were 32 cyclones which affected the Krishna–Godavari region, comprising four districts, namely East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, and Guntur. Therefore, these four districts have been considered for this social vulnerability study to identify the cyclone vulnerable villages. Geospatial applications are used in this study for spatial and non-spatial data processing and spatial analysis. The study indicated that half of the study area (3121.07 km2) lying moderately risk zone and around 7% of the study area observed high vulnerability. This study revealed that the use of geospatial application is most reliable and cost-effective approach for vulnerability and risk mapping and analysis. The result obtained from the present study may serve the baseline information for disaster management planning in the area.

A MULTI PARAMETRIC MICRO-LEVEL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR MOUNTAIN HABITAT: A CASE EXAMPLE FROM BHILANGANA BLOCK, UTTARAKHAND HIMALAYA, INDIA

Abstract. Although vulnerability is a relatively simple concept reflecting the degree of harm or adverse impacts on an individual, group or a system due to hazards, its implementation is rather complex due to underlying social, economic and physical dimensions of vulnerability along with coping capacity. This complex problem is addressed through a multi hazard vulnerability assessment model at a smallest human habitat i.e., village level in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India. The model can be effectively upscaled to higher administrative levels to present a multi-scalar view of the state of vulnerability in one of the worst disaster affected regions in India. It was tested for Bhilangana block of Uttarakhand state (India) set in multi-hazard prone North-west Himalaya. The analysis included elements of population, buildings and road infrastructure measured across dimensions of physical, social and economic conditions. A total of 32 factors were used to define vulnerability; data was normalized and aggregated to obtain a single index value for each village. Each component and overall comparative vulnerability were estimated using k-means clustering, where natural clusters of villages with similar vulnerability emerged as one class. Results show that remotely located villages like Pinswar, Gainwali, Banoli and Gangi exhibit highest vulnerability to multi-hazards. Least vulnerable villages are clustered around local business or tourist centres. The results highlight the spatial variation of vulnerability and its causative factors which are crucial for introducing appropriate policy measures to strengthen villages that are high on vulnerability parameters.

Vulnerability of south east coastal villages of India on sea level rise

Sea level rise is one of the evident ill effects of climate change. As per the fifth assessment report of IPCC the rate of sea level rise has increased in recent years as compared to the previous years. The rapid rise in sea level can have devastating effects on the densely populated coastal areas, mainly by way of inundation of low lying habitats. Inundation of highly populated coastal areas exposes the location to coastal hazards and increases the risk to both life and belongings of people at the location. Therefore, identification of vulnerable areas becomes necessary for coastal zone management. The present study maps the Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZ) of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and estimates the vulnerability of each coastal village based on population and elevation. The coastal villages with high percentage of low elevation zones and high population density are the most vulnerable areas and a vulnerability index is formulated as a product of these two variables. Landforms along Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu coast include low lying alluvial plains, bays, tidal mudflats, creeks, ridges, bars, spits, mangrove swamps, marshes, and lagoons, which are subject to sea level rise. Maps for the study were produced using ArcGIS 10. The boundary maps were collected from the DataMeet project and the elevation data from ETOPO1. Population density data were collected from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Increase in water level leads to higher rates of erosion that result in beach loss, enhancing the vulnerability of the coastal area to hazards. The analysis shows that Losari Gutlapadu and Sadayankuppam are the most vulnerable villages in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu respectively. Mapping of the vulnerable areas act as advisories and can help the state governments to develop mitigation strategies.

SOLARENERGY FUELS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS: CASE STUDY OF SOUTHWEST COASTAL REGION OF BANGLADESH

Electrification is one of the most crucial factors to ensure social and economic growth in Bangladesh. Being in a developing country, people from various districts of Bangladesh have been experiencing electricity crisis due to the increasing daily demand for power, which outweighs the supply of on-grid electricity. It is noted that about 30 percent of 160 million people, majority living in the rural areas are out of electricity connection in Bangladesh. Consequently, the shortage of energy hampers socioeconomic development and lowers living standards of people. Since, non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels and natural gas, the primary sources of energy production in Bangladesh, are limited, usage of renewable energy technology such as solar energy efficiently can satisfy the rising energy demand and in turn improve the existing energy shortage situation. This study found that Bangladesh has been implementing Solar Home System (SHS) programs that contribute in achieving the target to reach electricity to its every citizen by 2020. As of June 2017 a total of 262,515 households do have solar home systems from which an estimated 1.6 million people are benefitted. This article is written based on a research conducted in the districts of southwest coastal region of Bangladesh where a total of 5.1 million people live of which on an average 42.6 percent are poor and 24.9 percent are extreme poor. In-depth interviews, group discussions, key informant interviews, and household survey were used for collection of data to explore the impacts of SHS on the livelihoods of coastal people of Bangladesh. This research found that impacts of Solar Home System services are both immediate and long-term oriented. SHS program contributes enriching all kinds of livelihoods assets such as human, social, financial and physical of the SHS customers. The poor and extreme poor people of climate vulnerable villages of southwest coastal region of Bangladesh are benefited in different ways from SHS programs such as save daily expenditures for kerosene, doing income generating activities in evening hours by both male and female members of family, children sit for study regularly, women feel safety from lightening of house, they can charge cell phone, they have access to weather forecasting, their social status upgraded, and they save money because they do not need to pay bill for electricity. The SHS is one time investment and they customer can pay for SHS package in installments. As the SHS program approach is environment and poor people friendly, its impacts on livelihoods are found sustainable.