Assessment of Socio-Economic vulnerability in the selected reservoirs of Madhya Pradesh.

Abstract

Vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, quantifying and prioritising the vulnerabilities in a system. Vulnerabilities considering the climate change scenario mean assessing the threats from any kind of potential hazards to population, infrastructure, development programs, etc. Vulnerability assessment will help to improve adaptation, planning and allocation of resources and raise awareness about climate change implications at different levels. As vulnerability cannot be measured directly; it has to be inferred with the help of various variables. The focus of this study is to assess the socioeconomic dimension of vulnerability using various indicators under Socio-economic vulnerability index (SEVI). The study was conducted in Indirasagar and Gandhisagar reservoirs of Madhya Pradesh. The sensitivity and adaptive capacity of fishing and non-fishing villages of both the reservoirs were calculated, and eventually, both of them were used to find the final SEVI values. Fishing villages of Indirasagar reservoir are comparatively more vulnerable than the fishing villages of Gandhisagar reservoir due to higher Sensitivity (0.605) and lower adaptive capacity (0.434). Analysis of Mann-Whitney U test showed that four indicators varied across fishing and non-fishing villages of Indirasagar, and one indicator varied in the case of Gandhisagar reservoir. A higher level of sensitivity is mainly due to direct dependency on the reservoirs for their livelihood, making them susceptible to climatic variation and shudders. The villages’ adaptive capacity is lower, mainly because of inadequate housing amenities and housing conditions, lesser transport and communication facilities, overexploitation of groundwater and less diversity in the livestock population.