[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v27y2007i2p313-326.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioeconomic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Environmental Risk: A Case Study of Climate Change and Flooding in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Roy Brouwer
  • Sonia Akter
  • Luke Brander
  • Enamul Haque
Abstract
In this article we investigate the complex relationship between environmental risk, poverty, and vulnerability in a case study carried out in one of the poorest and most flood‐prone countries in the world, focusing on household and community vulnerability and adaptive coping mechanisms. Based upon the steadily growing amount of literature in this field we develop and test our own analytical model. In a large‐scale household survey carried out in southeast Bangladesh, we ask almost 700 floodplain residents living without any flood protection along the River Meghna about their flood risk exposure, flood problems, flood damage, and coping mechanisms. Novel in our study is the explicit testing of the effectiveness of adaptive coping strategies to reduce flood damage costs. We show that, households with lower income and less access to productive natural assets face higher exposure to risk of flooding. Disparity in income and asset distribution at community level furthermore tends to be higher at higher risk exposure levels, implying that individually vulnerable households are also collectively more vulnerable. Regarding the identification of coping mechanisms to deal with flood events, we look at both the ex ante household level preparedness for flood events and the ex post availability of community‐level support and disaster relief. We find somewhat paradoxically that the people that face the highest risk of flooding are the least well prepared, both in terms of household‐level ex ante preparedness and community‐level ex post flood relief.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy Brouwer & Sonia Akter & Luke Brander & Enamul Haque, 2007. "Socioeconomic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Environmental Risk: A Case Study of Climate Change and Flooding in Bangladesh," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 313-326, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:27:y:2007:i:2:p:313-326
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00884.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00884.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00884.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blackwood, D. L. & Lynch, R. G., 1994. "The measurement of inequality and poverty: A policy maker's guide to the literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 567-578, April.
    2. W. Adger & P. Kelly, 1999. "Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and the Architecture of Entitlements," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 253-266, September.
    3. Neil Adger, W., 1999. "Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and Extremes in Coastal Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 249-269, February.
    4. Moser, Caroline O. N., 1998. "The asset vulnerability framework: Reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Harun Rasid & Wolfgang Haider, 2003. "Floodplain Residents' Preferences for Water Level Management Options in Flood Control Projects in Bangladesh," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 28(1), pages 101-129, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deressa, Temesgen & Hassan, Rashid M. & Ringler, Claudia, 2008. "Measuring Ethiopian farmers' vulnerability to climate change across regional states:," IFPRI discussion papers 806, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Robin Leichenko & Karen O'Brien, 2002. "The Dynamics of Rural Vulnerability to Global Change: The Case of southern Africa," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Thi Ngoc Tu Le, 2020. "Floods and Household Welfare: Evidence from Southeast Asia," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 145-170, April.
    4. Roger Few, 2003. "Flooding, vulnerability and coping strategies: local responses to a global threat," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 3(1), pages 43-58, January.
    5. Jones, Lindsey & d'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Whose resilience matters? Like-for-like comparison of objective and subjective evaluations of resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Mook Bangalore & Andrew Smith & Ted Veldkamp, 2019. "Exposure to Floods, Climate Change, and Poverty in Vietnam," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 79-99, April.
    7. Delphine Boutin, 2014. "Climate vulnerability, communities' resilience and child labour," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 124(4), pages 625-638.
    8. H.M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey, 2020. "An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-26, July.
    9. Barnett, Jon, 2001. "Adapting to Climate Change in Pacific Island Countries: The Problem of Uncertainty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 977-993, June.
    10. Jia Xu & Makoto Takahashi, 2021. "Progressing vulnerability of the immigrants in an urbanizing village in coastal China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 8012-8026, May.
    11. Chiarity Zetem Chiambah & Cordelia G. Kometa, 2022. "Rainfall Variability and Food Crop Vulnerability in Ndu Sub-Division, North West Region of Cameroon," Journal of Geography and Geology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(3), pages 1-39, September.
    12. Sanjit Maiti & Sujeet Jha & Sanchita Garai & Arindam Nag & R. Chakravarty & K. Kadian & B. Chandel & K. Datta & R. Upadhyay, 2015. "Assessment of social vulnerability to climate change in the eastern coast of India," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 287-306, July.
    13. Xiaorui Zhang & Zhenbo Wang & Jing Lin, 2015. "GIS Based Measurement and Regulatory Zoning of Urban Ecological Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-19, July.
    14. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-082 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Ahmad Taki & Viet Ha Xuan Doan, 2022. "A New Framework for Sustainable Resilient Houses on the Coastal Areas of Khanh Hoa, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-31, June.
    16. Williamson, Tim & Hesseln, Hayley & Johnston, Mark, 2012. "Adaptive capacity deficits and adaptive capacity of economic systems in climate change vulnerability assessment," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 160-166.
    17. W.Neil Adger, 2001. "Scales of governance and environmental justice for adaptation and mitigation of climate change," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 921-931.
    18. Arouri, Mohamed & Nguyen, Cuong & Youssef, Adel Ben, 2015. "Natural Disasters, Household Welfare, and Resilience: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 59-77.
    19. Hochachka, Gail, 2021. "Integrating the four faces of climate change adaptation: Towards transformative change in Guatemalan coffee communities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Mehedi Mudasser & Md. Zakir Hossain & Khan Rubayet Rahaman & Nur Mohammad Ha-Mim, 2020. "Investigating the Climate-Induced Livelihood Vulnerability Index in Coastal Areas of Bangladesh," World, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-22, September.
    21. Clara Champalle & James D. Ford & Mya Sherman, 2015. "Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptations in Canadian Arctic Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-25, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:27:y:2007:i:2:p:313-326. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.