Climate Change Vulnerability Index for Karnataka: Adaptive Capacity, Exposure and Sensitivity for the Districts of Karnataka
Karnika A and Krishna Raj
Abstract
Climate change is a global phenomenon that will have a long-lasting effect. These effects, however, differ according to the regions and sectors. The objective of this paper is to study the intensity of climate vulnerability across the districts in different climatic zones in Karnataka through the construction of a climate change vulnerability index, and to analyse the climate vulnerability among socio-economic groups in the districts of Karnataka. The focus of the study has been on the region of Karnataka and its districts for analysing their level of vulnerability and studying their socio-economic backgrounds that explain this vulnerability to climate change. Data was collected from several state and central government reports, various census reports, ICRISAT, IMD reports, etc. Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis have been done to arrive at conclusions. A choropleth map has also been designed to indicate the scale of vulnerability of the districts. It was found that the vulnerability of a district is influenced not just by its location but also by its demographic and socio-economic background. The computation for the vulnerability index has been done by estimating the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity indexes, a framework suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007. The districts having very high vulnerability index to climate change have been observed on average to have high sensitivity, high exposure, and low adaptive capacity and the districts with low vulnerability index are found to have high adaptive capacity with low exposure or low sensitivity. The index levels are studied in the background of various socioeconomic, demographic and agricultural indicators for the districts hence, the level of intensity of climate change in the districts may differ from one another. Ballari, Raichur, Gulbarga, and Yadgir are found to have climate vulnerability compared to other districts and are also observed to have high levels of poverty, female-male sex ratios, and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations.