Drought and flood risk, impacts and adaptation options for resilience in rural communities of Uganda

Abstract

Climate change is affecting many rural resource-poor communities unequivocally with differing magnitude, severity and frequency of drought risk from one locale to another especially in Africa. At micro spatial scale of households and villages, climate change risk trends and hazards vary spatially, coupling with social, economic and locational conditions. This paper analyzes vulnerability and impacts of climate change from droughts and floods in a rural community with varied geographies across social, economic and environmental profiles in Uganda. In recent years, studies have shown that droughts have increased form 1 in 10 years to 1 in 6 years and the worst affected area is the semi-arid zone of Uganda that spans from south western through central parts to the north-eastern parts of the country. In the study area of Pallisa, located in the eastern central part of the semi-arid zone, droughts and floods impacts on livelihoods, people and assets are eroding the asset-base for the households. Yet the household assets are important in adaptation and resilience of the community. As a natural resource dependent community like many others, evidence strongly suggests increasing climate risks of droughts and floods the impacts of which are worsening the already grim conditions of community well-being. This paper analyses the climate risks utilizing the vulnerability assessment framework. A scenario-based analysis that integrates community evaluation of vulnerability with climate data to analyze current and future vulnerabilities in a spatial context is conducted to examine spatial differences in vulnerability. Various multi-scale adaptation strategies are analyzed in respect to the climate change risks to assess the resilient capacity of the community to current and future vulnerabilities.