Climate Change and Livelihood Vulnerability of the Local Population on Sagar Island, India

This paper attempts to assess the vulnerability to climate change of human communities in selected mouzas of Sagar Island, South 24 Parganas District of India. A primary household survey has been conducted to collect data on socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategy, health, food, water, social network, natural disaster and climate variation indicators, were selected for Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and Livelihood Vulnerability Index-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) analyses to measure and compare the vulnerability of mouzas (administrative unit) currently suffering from frequent flooding, coastal erosion and embankment breaching on an annual basis. Secondary data collected from the Indian Meteorological Department, the Water Resources Information System of India and the Global Sea Level Observing System have been used to identify dynamics of climate change by employing statistical and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. A GPS survey has been conducted to identify locations of embankment breaching, and satellite images obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and U.S. Geological Survey (NASA USGS) Government website have been applied to shoreline and land use change detection, using a supervised maximum likelihood classification. The results indicate that the study area has experienced increasing temperature, changing precipitation patterns, rise in sea level, higher storm surges, shoreline change, constant land loss, embankment breaching and changing land use, which have had impact on vulnerability, particularly of poorer people. The LVI (0.48 to 0.68) and LVI-IPCC (0.04 to 0.14) scores suggest that the populations of Dhablat, Bankimnagar, Sumatinagar, Muri Ganga and Sibpur mouzas are highly vulnerable (LVI scores of 0.60 to 0.68 and LVI-IPCC scores of 0.11 to 0.14) to climate change both because the communities are more exposed to it, and because poor access to food, health facilities and water makes them extremely sensitive to it and lowers their adaptive capacity. The findings of this study could be crucial to framing further development and adaptation strategies relating to climate change, and to safeguarding the estuarine ecosystem and the vulnerable population.