Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: A Case Study of South West Coastal Community of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) using the IPCC framework approach and a modified approach to estimate climate change vulnerability in south-west coastal area of Bangladesh. Nine Upazillas (sub-districts) in the south west coastal community were considered for this study. The major component indices of LVI such as socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, social network, health, food, water, natural disaster and climate variability were calculated based on the household survey data. The LVI based on the IPCC approach (LVI-IPCC) in nine upazillas in southwest coastal region of Bangladesh were found within a range of –0.02 to + 0.04 (on the scale of –1 to +1). In the modified approach, the LVI for the nine study areas was found within a wide range from 0.253 to 0.544 (on a scale of 0 to 1). For the LVI-IPCC approach, although the contributing factors (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) individually show variations in their indices from one to another, no significant variation is observed for the total livelihood index. However, the modified approach shows significant variation in LVI among the studied nine areas. It is concluded that the modified approach is suitable for community or district level assessment, whereas the LVI-IPCC may be suitable for regional level evaluation.