Livelihood Vulnerability and Coping Strategies to flood disaster. A case of Thapapur VDC, Kailali, Nepal

Nepal has been facing different kind of hazards especially water induced disaster in summer season. Many people have been affecting from disaster every year. Flood is a frequent disaster in Tarai region because of intense rainfall within a short period (June to September). Flood disaster mainly affects land- farming activities; on the other hand, many Nepalese rural people are depending on land farming as their major livelihood activities. Therefore, agriculture based human livelihoods highly vulnerable to flood disaster in Nepal. In addition to that, such disaster has a differential impact on human livelihood. The focus of the study is to find condition of livelihood vulnerability and coping strategy to flood disaster from western Nepal. Ninety-nine frequently hazard affected households were interviewed from Thapapur Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kailali district (western Tarai of Nepal) by using purposive sampling method, eight key informant interviews and two group discussions were done from three and half months' fieldwork. Livelihood framework has used to study the condition of livelihood. In addition, concept of Pressure and Release (PAR), and access model have used to analyse household vulnerability. Although there are no human causalities for seven years, the disaster has high impacts on agriculture production especially paddy cultivation, which is the major livelihood activities of the VDC. In addition to that the flood destroys house wall, enter into house and swept food grain are seasonal disaster impact in the VDC. The financial asset of household livelihood is poor in Thapapur VDC and playing negative role in livelihood building process. Diversification on income source and structural changes are major coping strategy observed in the area buts its effectiveness is differ with their economic condition. Household income dependency on agriculture has been reduced and new buildings are built flood resistant (use tall timber). The finding suggests that landholding size is the major determinant household livelihood vulnerability. When I traced back the present unsafe livelihood condition to the root cause, it is found that the main reasons of household vulnerability are improper government resettlement scheme for ex- bounded labourer, population growth and fragmentation of land, and unequal land distribution. Having poor financial asset, the household has fragile self-protection measures. In addition to that, the VDC has poor social protection measure to flood disaster and has weak structure of domination too that lead high disaster loss. Mostly people are using indigenous disaster management activities that are not sufficient to reduce the flood effect on livelihood in future.GEO350MASV-GEO

Household Vulnerability to Flood Disasters among Tharu Community, Western Nepal

Monsoon floods are frequent in the Tarai region of Nepal and claim thousands of lives and substantial numbers of properties every year. Certain human activities are more affected than others in the case of the same hazard. This study analyzes vulnerability to flooding among Tharu households. Data were collected by employing household surveys, group discussions, and key informant interviews in the Thapapur Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kailali district, western Tarai, Nepal. The analysis presented in this study is based on the theory that underpins the pressure and release (PAR) and access models. The results show that Tharu people are the major inhabitants in the study area and they prefer to live within their community; many ex-bonded laborers (marginalized people) choose this location for residence. Human causalities have been reduced in recent years due to easy access to cell phones, which has facilitated effective flood warnings with suitable lead times, but agriculture production loss and other losses are still high. Agricultural land is not only an important natural asset but is also considered a financial asset due to its high price and private ownership. The study concludes that subsistence agriculture-based households with small landholding sizes and less income diversification are highly vulnerable to flooding. Improper resettlement of ex-bonded laborers and land fragmentation due to separation of family members are the most prominent factors resulting in small landholdings. The results can guide government authorities to develop proper flood management strategies for the people living in the lowlands (particularly the Tarai region) of Nepal.publishedVersio

Livelihood Vulnerability and Coping Strategies to flood disaster. A case of Thapapur VDC, Kailali, Nepal

Nepal has been facing different kind of hazards especially water induced disaster in summer season. Many people have been affecting from disaster every year. Flood is a frequent disaster in Tarai region because of intense rainfall within a short period (June to September). Flood disaster mainly affects land- farming activities; on the other hand, many Nepalese rural people are depending on land farming as their major livelihood activities. Therefore, agriculture based human livelihoods highly vulnerable to flood disaster in Nepal. In addition to that, such disaster has a differential impact on human livelihood. The focus of the study is to find condition of livelihood vulnerability and coping strategy to flood disaster from western Nepal. Ninety-nine frequently hazard affected households were interviewed from Thapapur Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kailali district (western Tarai of Nepal) by using purposive sampling method, eight key informant interviews and two group discussions were done from three and half months' fieldwork. Livelihood framework has used to study the condition of livelihood. In addition, concept of Pressure and Release (PAR), and access model have used to analyse household vulnerability. Although there are no human causalities for seven years, the disaster has high impacts on agriculture production especially paddy cultivation, which is the major livelihood activities of the VDC. In addition to that the flood destroys house wall, enter into house and swept food grain are seasonal disaster impact in the VDC. The financial asset of household livelihood is poor in Thapapur VDC and playing negative role in livelihood building process. Diversification on income source and structural changes are major coping strategy observed in the area buts its effectiveness is differ with their economic condition. Household income dependency on agriculture has been reduced and new buildings are built flood resistant (use tall timber). The finding suggests that landholding size is the major determinant household livelihood vulnerability. When I traced back the present unsafe livelihood condition to the root cause, it is found that the main reasons of household vulnerability are improper government resettlement scheme for ex- bounded labourer, population growth and fragmentation of land, and unequal land distribution. Having poor financial asset, the household has fragile self-protection measures. In addition to that, the VDC has poor social protection measure to flood disaster and has weak structure of domination too that lead high disaster loss. Mostly people are using indigenous disaster management activities that are not sufficient to reduce the flood effect on livelihood in future

Household Vulnerability to Flood Disasters among Tharu Community, Western Nepal

Monsoon floods are frequent in the Tarai region of Nepal and claim thousands of lives and substantial numbers of properties every year. Certain human activities are more affected than others in the case of the same hazard. This study analyzes vulnerability to flooding among Tharu households. Data were collected by employing household surveys, group discussions, and key informant interviews in the Thapapur Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kailali district, western Tarai, Nepal. The analysis presented in this study is based on the theory that underpins the pressure and release (PAR) and access models. The results show that Tharu people are the major inhabitants in the study area and they prefer to live within their community; many ex-bonded laborers (marginalized people) choose this location for residence. Human causalities have been reduced in recent years due to easy access to cell phones, which has facilitated effective flood warnings with suitable lead times, but agriculture production loss and other losses are still high. Agricultural land is not only an important natural asset but is also considered a financial asset due to its high price and private ownership. The study concludes that subsistence agriculture-based households with small landholding sizes and less income diversification are highly vulnerable to flooding. Improper resettlement of ex-bonded laborers and land fragmentation due to separation of family members are the most prominent factors resulting in small landholdings. The results can guide government authorities to develop proper flood management strategies for the people living in the lowlands (particularly the Tarai region) of Nepal

Surface Urban Heat Islands Dynamics in Response to LULC and Vegetation across South Asia (2000–2019)

Urbanization is an increasing phenomenon around the world, causing many adverse effects in urban areas. Urban heat island is are of the most well-known phenomena. In the present study, surface urban heat islands (SUHI) were studied for seven megacities of the South Asian countries from 2000–2019. The urban thermal environment and relationship between land surface temperature (LST), land use landcover (LULC) and vegetation were examined. The connection was explored with remote-sensing indices such as urban thermal field variance (UTFVI), surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and normal difference vegetation index (NDVI). LULC maps are classified using a CART machine learning classifier, and an accuracy table was generated. The LULC change matrix shows that the vegetated areas of all the cities decreased with an increase in the urban areas during the 20 years. The average LST in the rural areas is increasing compared to the urban core, and the difference is in the range of 1–2 (°C). The SUHII linear trend is increasing in Delhi, Karachi, Kathmandu, and Thimphu, while decreasing in Colombo, Dhaka, and Kabul from 2000–2019. UTFVI has shown the poor ecological conditions in all urban buffers due to high LST and urban infrastructures. In addition, a strong negative correlation between LST and NDVI can be seen in a range of −0.1 to −0.6

Assessment of Drought Impact on Net Primary Productivity in the Terrestrial Ecosystems of Mongolia from 2003 to 2018

Drought has devastating impacts on agriculture and other ecosystems, and its occurrence is expected to increase in the future. However, its spatiotemporal impacts on net primary productivity (NPP) in Mongolia have remained uncertain. Hence, this paper focuses on the impact of drought on NPP in Mongolia. The drought events in Mongolia during 2003–2018 were identified using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS)-derived NPP was computed to assess changes in NPP during the 16 years, and the impacts of drought on the NPP of Mongolian terrestrial ecosystems was quantitatively analyzed. The results showed a slightly increasing trend of the growing season NPP during 2003–2018. However, a decreasing trend of NPP was observed during the six major drought events. A total of 60.55–87.75% of land in the entire country experienced drought, leading to a 75% drop in NPP. More specifically, NPP decline was prominent in severe drought areas than in mild and moderate drought areas. Moreover, this study revealed that drought had mostly affected the sparse vegetation NPP. In contrast, forest and shrubland were the least affected vegetation types

Analyzing NPP Response of Different Rangeland Types to Climatic Parameters over Mongolia

Global warming threatens ecosystem functions, biodiversity, and rangeland productivity in Mongolia. The study analyzes the spatial and temporal distributions of the Net Primary Production (NPP) and its response to climatic parameters. The study also highlights how various land cover types respond to climatic fluctuations from 2003 to 2018. The Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS) model was used to simulate the rangeland NPP of the last 16 years. Satellite remote sensing data products were mainly used as input for the model, where ground-based and MODIS NPP were used to validate the model result. The results indicated that the BEPS model was moderately effective (R2 = 0.59, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 13.22 g C m−2) to estimate NPP for Mongolian rangelands (e.g., grassland and sparse vegetation). The validation results also showed good agreement between the BEPS and MODIS estimates for all vegetation types, including forest, shrubland, and wetland (R2 = 0.65). The annual total NPP of Mongolia showed a slight increment with an annual increase of 0.0007 Pg (0.68 g C per meter square) from 2003 to 2018 (p = 0.82) due to the changes in climatic parameters and land cover change. Likewise, high increments per unit area found in forest NPP, while decreased NPP trend was observed in the shrubland. In conclusion, among the three climatic parameters, temperature was the factor with the largest influence on NPP variations (r = 0.917) followed precipitation (r = 0.825), and net radiation (r = 0.787). Forest and wetland NPP had a low response to precipitation, while inter-annual NPP variation shows grassland, shrubland, and sparse vegetation were highly sensitive rangeland types to climate fluctuations

A Geomorphic Approach for Identifying Flash Flood Potential Areas in the East Rapti River Basin of Nepal

Basin geomorphology is a complete system of landforms and topographic features that play a crucial role in the basin-scale flood risk evaluation. Nepal is a country characterized by several rivers and under the influence of frequent floods. Therefore, identifying flood risk areas is of paramount importance. The East Rapti River, a tributary of the Ganga River, is one of the flood-affected basins, where two major cities are located, making it crucial to assess and mitigate flood risk in this river basin. A morphometric calculation was made based on the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) 30-m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) in the Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The watershed, covering 3037.29 km2 of the area has 14 sub-basins (named as basin A up to N), where twenty morphometric parameters were used to identify flash flood potential sub-basins. The resulting flash flood potential maps were categorized into five classes ranging from very low to very high-risk. The result shows that the drainage density, topographic relief, and rainfall intensity have mainly contributed to flash floods in the study area. Hence, flood risk was analyzed pixel-wise based on slope, drainage density, and precipitation. Existing landcover types extracted from the potential risk area indicated that flash flood is more frequent along the major Tribhuvan Rajpath highway. The landcover data shows that human activities are highly concentrated along the west (Eastern part of Bharatpur) and the east (Hetauda) sections. The study concludes that the high human concentrated sub-basin “B” has been categorized as a high flood risk sub-basin; hence, a flood-resilient city planning should be prioritized in the basin

Impacts of Future Climate Changes on Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Terrestrial Ecosystems over China

Understanding the response of terrestrial ecosystems to future climate changes would substantially contribute to the scientific assessment of vegetation–climate interactions. Here, the spatiotemporal distribution and dynamics of vegetation in China were projected and compared based on comprehensive sequential classification system (CSCS) model under representative concentration pathway (RCP) RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 scenarios, and five sensitivity levels were proposed. The results show that the CSCS model performs well in simulating vegetation distribution. The number of vegetation types would increase from 36 to 40. Frigid–perhumid rain tundra and alpine meadow are the most distributed vegetation types, with an area of more than 78.45 × 104 km2, whereas there are no climate conditions suitable for tropical–extra-arid tropical desert in China. Some plants would benefit from climate changes to a certain extent. Warm temperate–arid warm temperate zone semidesert would expand by more than 1.82% by the 2080s. A continuous expansion of more than 18.81 × 104 km2 and northward shift of more than 124.93 km in tropical forest would occur across all three scenarios. However, some ecosystems would experience inevitable changes. More than 1.33% of cool temperate–extra-arid temperate zone desert would continuously shrink. Five sensitivity levels present an interphase distribution. More extreme scenarios would result in wider ecosystem responses. The evolutionary trend from cold–arid vegetation to warm–wet vegetation is a prominent feature despite the variability in ecosystem responses to climate changes