IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/masfgc/v21y2016i1p39-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agroecosystem specific climate vulnerability analysis: application of the livelihood vulnerability index to a tropical highland region

Author

Listed:
  • Belay Simane
  • Benjamin Zaitchik
  • Jeremy Foltz

Abstract

In topographically diverse highland terrain, socio-economic and environmental conditions can vary dramatically over relatively short distances. This presents a challenge for climate resilient development strategies, as exposure to climate variability and change, climate impacts, and adaptive capacity differ between communities located within common cultural and administrative units. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) framed within the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vulnerability framework (LVI-IPCC) offers a tool to assess climate vulnerability through direct household surveys. This makes it particularly appropriate for analyses at sub-community and community scales. Here we apply the LVI-IPCC to communities of Choke Mountain, located in the Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia. Recognizing the physiographic and climatic diversity that exists in this mountainous environment, we implement LVI-IPCC analysis for 793 mixed crop-livestock farming households using the five distinct agroecological systems (AES) that compose the populated area of Choke Mountain as a framework for analysis. For each AES, an LVI index, adaptive capacity metric, and LVI-IPCC vulnerability score was calculated. We found that each of these metrics varied systematically across AES. High elevation sloping lands and low elevation steep lands exhibited relatively low adaptive capacity and high vulnerability while midland AES had higher capacity and lower vulnerability. These results suggest that resilience building interventions for Choke Mountain ecosystems should be targeted to address the specific circumstances of each AES. The approach of applying LVI-IPCC at AES scale could be applicable to other climate vulnerable mountainous regions. Copyright The Author(s) 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Belay Simane & Benjamin Zaitchik & Jeremy Foltz, 2016. "Agroecosystem specific climate vulnerability analysis: application of the livelihood vulnerability index to a tropical highland region," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 39-65, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:21:y:2016:i:1:p:39-65
    DOI: 10.1007/s11027-014-9568-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11027-014-9568-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11027-014-9568-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2010. "Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change : Ethiopia," World Bank Publications - Reports 12504, The World Bank Group.
    2. Belay Simane & Benjamin F. Zaitchik & Mutlu Ozdogan, 2013. "Agroecosystem Analysis of the Choke Mountain Watersheds, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-25, February.
    3. Byerlee, Derek & Spielman, David J. & Alemu, Dawit & Gautam, Madhur, 2007. "Policies to promote cereal intensification in Ethiopia: A review of evidence and experience," IFPRI discussion papers 707, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alelgn Ewunetu & Belay Simane & Ermias Teferi & Benjamin F. Zaitchik, 2021. "Mapping and Quantifying Comprehensive Land Degradation Status Using Spatial Multicriteria Evaluation Technique in the Headwaters Area of Upper Blue Nile River," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-27, February.
    2. Lokesh Chandra Dube & Sudipto Chatterjee, 2022. "Assessing livelihood impact of forest carbon projects using sustainable livelihood framework," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(8), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Mst. Esmat Ara Begum & Mohammad Ismail Hossain & Mohammed Mainuddin, 2023. "Climate change perceptions, determinants and impact of adaptation strategies on watermelon farmers in the saline coastal areas of Bangladesh," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-31, December.
    4. Mekonnen Giweta & Yared Worku, 2018. "“Reversing the Degradation of Ethiopian Wetlands†: Is it Unachievable Phrase or A Call to Effective Action?," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 14(5), pages 136-146, September.
    5. Hoang Ha Vo & Takeshi Mizunoya & Cong Dinh Nguyen, 2021. "Determinants of farmers’ adaptation decisions to climate change in the central coastal region of Vietnam," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 327-349, June.
    6. Mintesinot Taye & Belay Simane & Yihenew G. Selsssie & Benjamin Zaitchik & Shimelis Setegn, 2018. "Analysis of the Spatial Variability of Soil Texture in a Tropical Highland: The Case of the Jema Watershed, Northwestern Highlands of Ethiopia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-10, September.
    7. Sunita Rani Das & Farjana Eyasmin & Bikash Chandra Ghosh, 2023. "Economic assessment of rice farmers’ climate change adaptation options and their sustainability: a case of Pabna district, Bangladesh," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Misganaw Teshager Abeje & Atsushi Tsunekawa & Nigussie Haregeweyn & Zerihun Nigussie & Enyew Adgo & Zemen Ayalew & Mitsuru Tsubo & Asres Elias & Daregot Berihun & Amy Quandt & Mulatu Liyew Berihun & T, 2019. "Communities’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Climate Variability in Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-22, November.
    9. Alelgn Ewunetu & Belay Simane & Ermias Teferi & Benjamin F. Zaitchik, 2021. "Relationships and the Determinants of Sustainable Land Management Technologies in North Gojjam Sub-Basin, Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    10. Wang, Delu & Wan, Kaidi & Song, Xuefeng, 2020. "Understanding coal miners’ livelihood vulnerability to declining coal demand: Negative impact and coping strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Husen Maru & Amare Haileslassie & Tesfaye Zeleke & Befikadu Esayas, 2021. "Analysis of Smallholders’ Livelihood Vulnerability to Drought across Agroecology and Farm Typology in the Upper Awash Sub-Basin, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-28, August.
    12. Thinh An Nguyen & Bich Thi Nguyen & Hanh Ta & Nhung Thi Phuong Nguyen & Huong Thi Hoang & Quan Phung Nguyen & Luc Hens, 2021. "Livelihood vulnerability to climate change in the mountains of Northern Vietnam: comparing the Hmong and the Dzao ethnic minority populations," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13469-13489, September.
    13. Hao Guo & Yaoyao Wu & Yanrui Shang & Hao Yu & Jing’ai Wang, 2019. "Quantifying Farmers’ Initiatives and Capacity to Cope with Drought: A Case Study of Xinghe County in Semi-Arid China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Liboster Mwadzingeni & Raymond Mugandani & Paramu L. Mafongoya, 2021. "Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change in Smallholder Irrigation Schemes of Zimbabwe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    15. M. Rezaul Islam, 2018. "Climate Change, Natural Disasters and Socioeconomic Livelihood Vulnerabilities: Migration Decision Among the Char Land People in Bangladesh," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 575-593, April.
    16. Alelgn Ewunetu & Belay Simane & Ermias Teferi & Benjamin F. Zaitchik, 2021. "Land Cover Change in the Blue Nile River Headwaters: Farmers’ Perceptions, Pressures, and Satellite-Based Mapping," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, January.
    17. Jiangnan Li & Jieming Chou & Weixing Zhao & Yuan Xu & Yidan Hao & Yuanmeng Li, 2022. "Future Drought and Flood Vulnerability and Risk Prediction of China’s Agroecosystem under Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-25, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nigussie, Yalemzewd & van der Werf, Edwin & Zhu, Xueqin & Simane, Belay & van Ierland, Ekko C., 2018. "Evaluation of Climate Change Adaptation Alternatives for Smallholder Farmers in the Upper Blue-Nile Basin," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 142-150.
    2. Husmann, Christine, 2015. "Transaction Costs on the Ethiopian Formal Seed Market and Innovations for Encouraging Private Sector Investments," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 54(01), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Yu, Bingxin & Nin-Pratt, Alejandro & Funes, José & Gemessa, Sinafikeh Asrat, 2011. "Cereal production and technology adoption in Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 31, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Channing Arndt & Finn Tarp & James Thurlow, 2015. "The Economic Costs of Climate Change: A Multi-Sector Impact Assessment for Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Menale Kassie & Precious Zikhali & Kebede Manjur & Sue Edwards, 2009. "Adoption of sustainable agriculture practices: Evidence from a semi‐arid region of Ethiopia," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(3), pages 189-198, August.
    6. Paul Chinowsky & Amy Schweikert & Niko Strzepek & Kyle Manahan & Kenneth Strzepek & C. Schlosser, 2013. "Climate change adaptation advantage for African road infrastructure," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 345-361, March.
    7. Sherman Robinson & Dirk Willenbockel & Kenneth Strzepek, 2012. "A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ethiopia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 489-502, August.
    8. Tesfaye, Abonesh & Hansen, James & Kassie, Girma Tesfahun & Radeny, Maren & Solomon, Dawit, 2019. "Estimating the economic value of climate services for strengthening resilience of smallholder farmers to climate risks in Ethiopia: A choice experiment approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 157-168.
    9. Daregot Berihun & Passel Steven, 2022. "Climate variability and macroeconomic output in Ethiopia: the analysis of nexus and impact via asymmetric autoregressive distributive lag cointegration method," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4064-4087, March.
    10. Spielman, David J. & Smale, Melinda, 2017. "Policy options to accelerate variety change among smallholder farmers in South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1666, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Asfaw, Solomon & McCarthy, Nancy & Paolantonio, Adriana & Cavatassi, Romina & Amare, Mulubrhan & Lipper, Leslie, 2015. "Diversification, Climate Risk and Vulnerability to Poverty: Evidence from Rural Malawi," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 230216, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Gashaw Tadesse Abate & Tanguy Bernard & Alan de Brauw & Nicholas Minot, 2018. "The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: evidence from a randomized control trial," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(4), pages 409-421, July.
    13. Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane & Koru, Bethlehem & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2015. "Cereal productivity and its drivers: The case of Ethiopia," ESSP working papers 75, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Ashenafi Yimam Kassaye & Guangcheng Shao & Xiaojun Wang & Marye Belete, 2022. "Evaluating the practices of climate-smart agriculture sustainability in Ethiopia using geocybernetic assessment matrix," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 724-764, January.
    15. Kassie, Menale & Zikhali, Precious & Manjur, Kebede & Edwards, Sue, 2009. "Adoption of Organic Farming Techniques: Evidence from a Semi-Arid Region of Ethiopia," RFF Working Paper Series dp-09-01-efd, Resources for the Future.
    16. Headey, Derek & Dereje, Mekdim & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2014. "Land constraints and agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: A village-level analysis of high-potential areas," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 129-141.
    17. Cira,Dean A. & Kalra,Nidhi Rajiv & Lempert,Robert J. & Lotsch,Alexander & Mao, Zhimin & Peyraud, Suzanne & Bach,Sinh Tan, 2013. "Ensuring robust flood risk management in Ho Chi Minh city," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6465, The World Bank.
    18. Muñoz-Ulecia, E. & Bernués, A. & Casasús, I. & Olaizola, A.M. & Lobón, S. & Martín-Collado, D., 2021. "Drivers of change in mountain agriculture: A thirty-year analysis of trajectories of evolution of cattle farming systems in the Spanish Pyrenees," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    19. Bazzana, Davide & Foltz, Jeremy & Zhang, Ying, 2022. "Impact of climate smart agriculture on food security: An agent-based analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    20. Paul Evangelista & Nicholas Young & Jonathan Burnett, 2013. "How will climate change spatially affect agriculture production in Ethiopia? Case studies of important cereal crops," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 855-873, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:21:y:2016:i:1:p:39-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.