Community-Based Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment: Informing the Future by Understanding the Past

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Climate change2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, contribution of workinggroup 2 to the 4th assessment report of the intergovernmental panel onclimate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 976, 2007{[}1]) warned that the mega deltas in South Asia (e.g. the GangesBrahmaputra Meghna River Basin) will be at great risk due to increasedflooding, and the region's poverty would reduce the capacity of theinhabitants to adapt to change. This chapter provides a `bottom up'impact approach which focuses on a methodological contribution forassessment of vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) in a riverine flood-prone area, `Islampur' in Bangladesh, where various impact assessmentguidelines have been taken into consideration. In this chapter theevaluation of V&A assessments at community level has been accomplishedmainly by a weighted matrix index value derived from two participatoryrapid appraisals (PRAs). Based on the distribution pattern of variousweighted value indices of V&A issues, the required adaptationtechniques can be adopted for immediate policy-making, and appropriateactions should be undertaken through establishing community-basedadaptation committees (CBAC) (further detail in Younus and Harvey (LocalEcon {[}2]).