The rains are disappointing us: dynamic vulnerability and adaptation to multiple stressors in the Afram Plains, Ghana

Westerhoff, Lisa; Smit, Barry

doi:10.1007/s11027-008-9166-1

Cited by 92 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…These constraints also hamper their ability to cope with changing environmental conditions (Downing et al 1997;Westerhoff and Smit 2009). Community-based studies have provided insights into the various stresses that affect people and their livelihoods.…”

Section: Climate Change Impacts Vulnerability and Adaptation (Iva)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers are already noticing changes in rainfall and in seasonality (Casale et al 2010;Laube et al 2012;Tambo and Abdoulaye 2013). They are experiencing unpredictability in the onset of the rainy season (Assan and Kumar 2009;Laube et al 2012), increased incidences of drought (Hesselberg and Yaro 2006;Westerhoff and Smit 2009), and more intense rainfall, sometimes leading to increased flooding (Westerhoff and Smit 2009;Casale et al 2010;Tschakert et al 2010). These biophysical drivers act to deplete people's natural capital by shortening the growing season and decreasing soil moisture and soil fertility (Quaye 2008;Batisani 2012;Milgroom and Giller 2013).…”

Section: Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Illness is sometimes related to a lack of reliable potable water (Westerhoff and Smit 2009). Disease reduces a household's human capital, as it often restricts people's ability to labor on the farm or undertake other household tasks.…”

Section: Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change, food security, and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

2015

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Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Multiple biophysical, political, and socioeconomic stresses interact to increase the region's susceptibility and constrain its adaptive capacity. Climate change is commonly recognized as a major issue likely to have negative consequences on food security and livelihoods in the region. This paper reviews three bodies of scholarship that have evolved somewhat separately, yet are inherently interconnected: climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, food security, and sustainable livelihoods. The paper develops a conceptualization of the relationships among the three themes and shows how food security's vulnerabilities are related to multiple stresses and adaptive capacities, reflecting access to assets. Food security represents one of several livelihood outcomes. The framework shows how several research paradigms relate to the issue of food security and climate change and provides a guide for empirical investigations. Recognizing these interconnections can help in the development of more effective policies and programs. The framework is applied here to synthesize findings from an array of studies in subSaharan Africa dealing with vulnerability to climate change, food security, and livelihoods.

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Section: Climate Change Impacts Vulnerability and Adaptation (Iva)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change, food security, and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

2015

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“…Yet a community's exposure-sensitivity and adaptive capacity to climate change cannot be understood independently of the various other forces which affect the community and to which it adapts. The effects of changing climate conditions are felt synergistically with the effects of changing economic, political, social, cultural and technological conditions (Adger and Kelly 1999;Kasperson and Kasperson 2001;Turner et al 2003;Füssel and Klein 2006;Tschakert 2007;Westerhoff and Smit 2008). Research on practical climate adaptation has shown that adaptations are rarely to climate change alone (hence "double exposure" and "multiple exposure"), and adaptations are invariably undertaken as part of ongoing risk management, resource management, or development strategies (hence "mainstreaming") Thomalla et al 2005;Belliveau et al 2006).…”

Section: Vulnerability Concepts and Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability and adaptation in a dryland community of the Elqui Valley, Chile

et al. 2009

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Livelihoods in drylands are already challenged by the demands of climate variability, and climate change is expected to have further implications for water resource availability in these regions. This paper characterizes the vulnerability of an irrigation-dependent agricultural community located in the Elqui River Basin of Northern Chile to water and climate-related conditions in light of climate change. The paper documents the exposures and sensitivities faced by the community in light of current water shortages, and identifies their ability to manage these exposures under a changing climate. The IPCC identifies potentially increased aridity in this region with climate change; furthermore, the Elqui River is fed by snowmelt and glaciers, and its flows will be affected by a warming climate. Community vulnerability occurs within a broader physical, economic, political and social context, and vulnerability in the community varies amongst occupations, resource uses and accessibility to water resources, making some more susceptible to changing conditions in the future. This case study highlights the need for adaptation to current land and water management practices to maintain livelihoods in the face of changes many people are not expecting.

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“…Important factors include: a) the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of populations and their available assets; b) the capacity of populations to foresee, resist, react to, recover from, cope with, and take advantage of hazards and stresses; and c) the way in which governance and policies (e.g., infrastructure provision, health and education) influence those characteristics and adaptive capacities (Romero-Lankao and Qin 2011). To a much greater extent, this perspective showcases the role of non-climatic socioeconomic factors (O'Brien et al 2004;Reid and Vogel 2006;Tschakert 2007;Westerhoff and Smit 2009;Ziervogel and Taylor 2008). Reducing contextual vulnerability, therefore, emphasizes existing vulnerabilities and reducing them through addressing the underlying processes and factors that determine exposure, sensitivity, and most importantly, adaptive capacity (Schipper 2007;Boyd et al 2009;Jones and Boyd 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Challenges to adaptation: a fundamental concept for the shared socio-economic pathways and beyond

et al. 2013

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The framework for the new scenarios being developed for climate research calls for the development of a set of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), which are meant to differ in terms of their challenges to mitigation and challenges to adaptation. In order for the scenario process to fulfill its goals, the research and policy communities need to develop a shared understanding of these concepts. This paper focuses on challenges to adaptation. We begin by situating this new concept in the context of the rich literatures related to inter alia adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience. We argue that a proper characterization of challenges to adaptation requires a rich, exploration of the concept, which goes beyond mere description. This has a number of implications for the operationalization of the concept in the basic and extended versions of the SSPs. First, the elements comprising challenges to adaptation must include a wide range of socioeconomic and even some (non-climatic) biophysical factors. Second, careful consideration must be given to differences in these factors across scales, as well as cross-scale interactions. Third, any representation of the concept will require both quantitative and qualitative elements. The scenario framework offers the opportunity for the SSPs and full scenarios to be of greater value than has been the case in past exercises to both Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) and Impacts, Climatic Change (2014) 122:495-507

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The rains are disappointing us: dynamic vulnerability and adaptation to multiple stressors in the Afram Plains, Ghana

Abstract: Adaptation, Afram plains, Africa, Agriculture, Community, Ghana, Food security, Water, Vulnerability,

Cited by 92 publications

References 45 publications

Climate change, food security, and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

Climate change, food security, and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

Vulnerability and adaptation in a dryland community of the Elqui Valley, Chile

Challenges to adaptation: a fundamental concept for the shared socio-economic pathways and beyond

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