Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
Sustainability Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Read chapter Read first chapter

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

6. Perceived Community Resilience to Floods and Droughts Induced by Climate Change in Semi-arid Ghana

Authors : Yaw Agyeman Boafo, Osamu Saito, Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Gerald A. B. Yiran, Rodolfo Dam Lam, Geetha Mohan, Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic

Published in: Sustainability Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa I

Publisher: Springer Singapore

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

Droughts and floods are some of the major climatic hazards in the semi-arid areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Climate change affects the periodicity and severity of such hazards, and eventually the well-being of many rural communities in the region, including semi-arid Ghana. Enhancing the resilience of local communities to droughts and floods would be a necessary step to meet different national development priorities. The aim of this chapter is to assess the perceived community resilience to recurrent floods and droughts induced by climate change. We focus on two purposely selected districts in the Northern and Upper West regions of Ghana that have varying degrees of vulnerability to floods and droughts. Following an extensive literature review, we develop a conceptual framework that contains the most commonly used elements of ecological, engineering and socio-economic resilience. We populate this framework with data collected through 30 focus group discussions (FGDs) with elderly men, elderly women and young adults across ten local communities. The resilience perceptions for each group are elicited using a customized Likert-type scale. The results reveal that local communities and study groups across the case districts consistently perceive their overall resilience to be “low” or “very low”, with little variation between drought-prone and flood-prone sites. Despite the large consensus in most resilience elements, young adults tend to report lower resilience scores compared to elderly men and women. These findings reflect empirical evidence about the low adaptive capacity to human and natural shocks and stresses in semi-arid Ghana. This bottom-up approach can be used as a pre-planning tool to identify priority areas and inform the development of context-specific interventions to enhance community resilience to floods and droughts.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe




 

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Determinants of Foreign Investment and International Aid for Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa: A Visual Cognitive Review of the Literature
next chapter Linking Rural Livelihoods and Fuelwood Demand from Mangroves and Upland Forests in the Coastal Region of Guinea
Footnotes
1
Rockström et al. (2009) point out that water scarcity and rainfall variability (coupled with human pressure on water resources for food production) in the savanna semi-arid regions could lead to floods, droughts and dry spells, and why there is a need for the adoption of effective water strategies to increase the resilience of local social-ecological systems.
 
2
Such an example comes from the Afar landscape in north-eastern Ethiopia, where households and communities are both highly exposed and sensitive to perennial droughts and warming, which negatively affect water resources, livestock production, and agricultural productivity (Magnan et al. 2016). The promotion of regional adaptation policies such as irrigation agriculture and non-pastoral livelihoods systems, generated conflicts and widened social disparities due to competition over land and other natural resources (Eriksen and Marin 2015).
 
3
The term ‘community’ in this study refers to the people that share a common physical and/or geographical space. This includes access to (and utilization of) common ecosystem goods and services, whilst interacting regularly and being connected through common socio-cultural beliefs and norms.
 
4
The aforementioned process was a central element of the CECAR-Africa project, which aimed at developing and implementing a community-based resilience enhancement framework in rural communities in Ghana that are vulnerable to floods and droughts (Sect. 6.2.2). This framework drew on the participation of relevant stakeholders at the local, district, regional, national and global levels, and is referred to as the ‘Ghana Model’ (Saito et al. 2018b).
 
5
Critical values are assigned depending on the distribution skewness, with slight skew at 0.69, moderate skew at 0.49, and heavy skew at 0.42. Level of skewness are measured with absolute values ranging between 0–0.5, as slight skew; 0.5–1 as moderate skew; and > 1 as heavy skew (Bulmer 1979).
 
6
It is well known that the synergistic effects of different disasters can have even higher adverse outcomes (Yiran and Stringer 2016), and reducing further the resilience of local communities in semi-arid Ghana.
 
7
Even though not specifically mentioned, cattle can also support farm intensification, as they are a major source of nutrients for agriculture in the form of manure and crop residues from feed (Mortimore and Adams 2001).
 
Literature
Acheampong E, Ozor N, Owusu E (2014) Vulnerability assessment of Northern Ghana to climate variability. Climate Change 126(12):31–44
Adger W (2000) Social and ecological resilience: are they related? Prog Hum Geogr 24(3):347–364
Antwi E, Otsuki K, Saito O et al (2014) Developing a community-based resilience assessment model with reference to Northern Ghana. J Integr Disaster Risk Manage 4. 10.5595
Antwi-Agyei P, Fraser EDG, Dougill AJ, Stringer LC, Simelton E (2012) Mapping the vulnerability of crop production to drought in Ghana using rainfall, yield and socioeconomic data. Appl Geogr 32:324–334
Argon P (2014) Developing a model and tool to measure community disaster resilience. Aust J Emerg Manage 29:12–16
Armah FA, Odoi JO, Yengoh GT, Obiri S, Yawson DO, Afrifa EKA (2011) Food security and climate change in drought-sensitive Savannah Zones of Ghana. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Chang 16(3):291–306
Armah FA, Yawson DO, Genesis TY, Odoi JO, Ernest K, Afrifa A (2010) Impact of floods on livelihoods and vulnerability of natural resource dependent communities in Northern Ghana. Water 2(2):120–139
Awumbila M, Darkwah A, and Teye JK (2015) Migration, intra-household dynamics and youth aspirations. Unpublished Paper. Migrating out of Poverty, University of Sussex
Awumbila M, Owusu G and Teye JK (2014). Can rural-urban migration into slums reduce poverty? Evidence from Ghana. Migrating out of Poverty Working Paper 13. University of Sussex
Boafo YA, Osamu S, Takeuchi K (2014) Provisioning ecosystem services in rural savannah landscapes of Northern Ghana: an assessment of supply, utilization and drivers of change. J Disaster Res 9(4):501–515
Boafo YA, Saito O, Jasaw GS, Otsuki K, Takeuchi K (2016) Provisioning ecosystem services-sharing as a coping and adaptation strategy among rural communities in Ghana’s semi-arid ecosystem. Ecosyst Serv 19:92–102
Bruneau M, Chang S, Eguchi R, Lee G, O’Rourke T, Reinhorn A, Shinozuka M, Tierney K, Wallace W, von Winterfelt D (2003) A framework to quantitatively assess and enhance the seismic resilience of communities. EERI Spectra J 19(4):733–752
Buckle P (2006) Assessing social resilience. In: Paton D, Johnston D (eds) Disaster resilience: An integrated approach. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL, pp 88–103
Bulmer MG (1979) Principles of statistics. Dover, New York
Burke MJ, Dunlap WP (2002) Estimating Interrater Agreement with the Average Deviation Index: A User’s Guide. Organ Res Methods 5:159–172
Burton CG (2015) A validation of metrics for community resilience to natural hazards and disasters using the recovery from Hurricane Katrina as a case study. Ann Am Assoc Geogr 105(2015):67–86
Chen C, Noble I, Hellmann J, Coffee J, Murillo M, Chawla N (2015) University of notre dame global adaptation index: country index. University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index Country: Country index technical report, 46
Cutter SL, Barnes L, Berry M, Burton CG, Evans E, Tate EC, Webb J (2008) A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Glob Environ Chang 18:598–606
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) (2012). Flood and drought risk mapping in Ghana; EPA: Accra, Ghana
Eriksen S, Marin A (2015) Sustainable adaptation under adverse development? Lessons from Ethiopia. In: Inderberg TH, Eriksen SH, O'Brien K, Sygna L (eds) Climate change adaptation and development: changing paradigms and practices. Routledge, Oxford, pp 178–199
Folke C, Colding J, Berkes F (2003) Synthesis: building resilience and adaptive capacity in social–ecological systems. In: Berkes F, Colding J, Folke C (eds) Navigating social–ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 352–387
Gaillard J (2007) Resilience of traditional societies in facing natural hazards. Disaster Prev Manag 16(4):522–544
Ghana Statistical Service (2012) 2010 Population and housing census: summary report of final results. Ghana Statistical Service, Accra
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) (2014) Ghana living standards survey round 6. GSS, Accra, Ghana
Gisev N, Bell JS, Chen TF (2013) Interrater agreement and interrater reliability: key concepts, approaches, and applications. Res Soc Adm Pharm 9(3):330–338
Gunderson LH, Holling CS (eds) (2002) Panarchy: understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press, Washington, DC
Haq G, Whitelegg J, Kohler M (2008) Growing old in a changing climate: meeting the challenges of an ageing population and climate change. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm
Higgins S, Scheiter S (2012) Atmospheric CO2 forces abrupt vegetation shifts locally, but not globally. Nature 488(7410):209–212
Holling CS (1973) Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23
IPBES (2018) Summary for policymakers of the assessment report on land degradation and restoration of the Intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany
IPCC (2014) Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014). Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland: Cambridge University Press
Janssen MA, Schoon ML, Ke W, Börner K (2006) Scholarly networks on resilience, vulnerability and adaptation within the human dimensions of global environmental change. Glob Environ Chang 16(3):240–252
Jarawura FX (2013) Drought and Migration in Northern Ghana. Doctor of Philosophy Thesis Presented to The University of Ghana Centre for Migration Studies, Accra
Jasaw G, Saito O, Gasparatos A, Shoyama K, Boafo Y, Takeuchi K (2017) Ecosystem services trade-offs from high fuelwood use for traditional shea butter processing in semi-arid Ghana. Ecosyst Serv 27:127–138
Kusakari Y, Asubonteng K, Jasaw G, Dayour F, Dzivenu T, Lolig V, Donkoh S, Obeng KF, Gandaa B, Kranjac-Berisavljevic G (2014) Farmer-perceived effects of climate change on livelihoods in Wa West District, Upper West Region of Ghana. J Disaster Res 9:516–528
Langridge R, Christian-Smith J, Lohse KA (2006) Access and resilience: analyzing the construction of social resilience to the threat of water scarcity. Ecol Soc 11(2):18
Lehmann C, Anderson T, Sankran M, Higgins S, Archibald S, Hoffmann W et al (2014) Savanna vegetation-fire-climate relationships differ among continents. Science 343(6170):548–552
Lolig V et al (2014) Households’ coping strategies in drought- and flood-prone communities in Northern Ghana. J Disaster Res 9(4):542–553
Ludwig D, Walker B, Holling CS (1997) Sustainability, stability, and resilience. Conserv Ecol. [online] 1(1):7
Magis K (2010) Community resilience: an indicator of social sustainability. Soc Natur Resour 23(5):401–416
Manyena S (2006) The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters 30(4):434–450
Mortimore MJ, and Adams WM. (2001). Farmer adaptation, change and ‘crisis’ in the Sahel. Global Environ Change—Human and Policy Dimensions 11: 49–57
Musah BAN, Akai CY (2014) Effects of flood disasters on livelihood coping mechanism in Tolon/Kumbumgu district of northern region of Ghana. Int J Agric Policy Res 2(1):033–040
Musah BAN, Oloruntoba A (2013) Effects of seasonal floods on households’ livelihoods and food security in Tolon/Kumbungu of the northern region, Ghana. Am J Res Commun 1(8):160–171
NADMO (National Disaster Management Organisation). Annual Report 2011; National Disaster Management Organisation: Accra, Ghana
NASAC (2015) Climate change adaptation and resilience in Africa. Recommendations to policymakers, Network of African Science Academies
NDPC (National Development Planning Commission) (2014) Medium-term national development policy framework: Ghana shared growth and development agenda II 2014–2017: vol II: policy framework. www.​ndpc.​gov.​gh/​downloads
Niang I, Ruppel OC, Abdrabo MA, Essel A Lennard C, Padgham J and Urquhart P (2014) Africa. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Norris FH, Stevens SP, Pfefferbaum B, Wyche KF, Pfefferbaum RL (2008) Community resilience as a metaphor, theory, set of capabilities, and strategy for disaster readiness. Am J Community Psychol 41:127–150
Nyantakyi-Frimpong H, Bezner-Kerr R (2015) The relative importance of climate change in the context of multiple stressors in semi-arid Ghana. Glob Environ Chang 32:40–56
O’Neill TA (2017) An overview of interrater agreement on likert scales for researchers and practitioners. Front Psychol 8:777
Oteng-ababio M, Mariwah S, Kusi L (2017) Is the underdevelopment of northern Ghana a case of environmental determinism or governance crisis? Ghana J Geogr 9(Special Issue):5–39
Owusu AB, Jakpa JT, Awere KG (2016) Smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to floods in the Tolon District, Ghana. Interdiscip Environ Rev 17(3/4):286–311
Parnewll M (2011) Agropolitan and bottom-up development. In: Desai V, Potter RB (eds) The companion to development studies, 2nd edn. Chennai Micro Print, Chennai, India
Pelling M (2003) The vulnerability of cities: natural disasters and social resilience. Earthscan, London
Peprah K (2015) Land degradation is indicative: proxies of forest land degradation in Ghana. J Degrad Min Lands Manage 3(1):477–489. (2015): 477
Perrings C (2006) Resilience and sustainable development. Environ Dev Econ 11(4):417–427
Rademacher-Schulz C and Mahama ES (2012). “Where the rain falls”, Project case study: Ghana. Results from Nadowli District, Upper West region, Ghana. (Report No. 3). United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn
Rockström J, Falkenmark M, Karlberg L et al (2009) Future water availability for global food production: The potential of green water for increasing resilience to global change. Water Resour Res 45:1–16
Saito O, Boafo YA, Jasaw GS et al (2018a) The Ghana Model for resilience enhancement in Semiarid Ghana: conceptualization and social implementation. In: Saito O, Kranjac-Berisavljevic G, Takeuchi KA, Gyasi E (eds) Strategies for building resilience against climate and ecosystem changes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Science for sustainable societies. Springer, Tokyo
Saito O, Kranjac-Berisavljevic G, Takeuchi K, A. Gyasi E. (eds) (2018b) Strategies for building resilience against climate and ecosystem changes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Science for Sustainable Societies. Springer, Tokyo
Schraven B (2010) Irrigate or migrate? Local livelihood adaptation in Northern Ghana in response to ecological changes and economic challenges (PhD dissertation, University of Bonn, Germany)
Simpson DM (2006) Indicator issues and proposed framework for a disaster preparedness index (Dpi), Unpublished Draft report to the Fritz Institute Disaster Preparedness Assessment Project
Smith-Crowe K, Burke MJ, Kouchaki M, Signal SM (2013) Assessing interrater agreement via the average deviation index given a variety of theoretical and methodological problems. Organ Res Methods 16:127–151
Songsore J (2009) Regional Development in Ghana: The theory and the reality. Woeli Publishing Services, Accra, Ghana
Songsore J (2011) Regional development in Ghana: the theory and reality. Woeli Publishing Services, Accra
Stanturf JA, Warren Jr., ML, Charnley S, Polasky SC, Goodrick SL, Armah F and Nyako YA (2011) Ghana: climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment. United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Tobin G (1999) Sustainability and community resilience: the holy grail of hazards planning? Global Environ Change B Environ Hazard 1(1):13–25
UNDP/UNSO (1997) Aridity zones and dryland populations: an assessment of population levels in the world’s drylands with particular reference to Africa. UNDP Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO), New York
UNISDR (2012) How to make cities more resilient: a handbook for local government leaders. Geneva: Switzerland
United Nations University (UNU), World Risk Report 2014, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security and Alliance Development Works, Berlin, Germany, 2014
Walker B, Holling CS, Carpenter SR, Kinzig A (2004) Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems. Ecol Soc 9(2):5
Whitmarsh L (2008) Are flood victims more concerned about climate change than other people? The role of direct experience in risk perception and behavioural response. J Risk Res 11(3):351–374
Wossen T, Berger T (2015) Climate variability, food security and poverty: Agent-based assessment of policy options for farm households in Northern Ghana. Environ Sci Policy 47:95–107
Yiran GAB, Stringer LC (2016) Spatio-temporal analyses of impacts of multiple climatic hazards in a savannah ecosystem of Ghana. Clim Risk Manag 14:11–26
Yiran GAB, Stringer LC, Attua EM, Evans AJ, Challinor AJ, Gyasi EA (2017) Spatial Mapping of Vulnerability of Multi-sector to Multi-hazards in the Savanna Ecosystem in Ghana. Reg Environ Chang 17(3):665–676
Yonehara A, Saito O, Hayashi K, Nagao M, Yanagisawa R, Matsuyama K (2017) The role of evaluation in achieving the SDGs. Sustain Sci 12:969–973
Zakaria H, Abujaja AM, Adam H, Yakub WS (2015) Does gender makes any difference in livelihoods diversification? Evidence from Northern Ghana. Int J Agric Extension Rural Dev Stud 1(1):36–51
Zakaria H (2017) The drivers of women farmers’ participation in cash crop production: the case of women smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. J Agric Educ Ext 23(2):141–158
Zimmerman, R., Restrepo C.E., Nagorsky B and Culpen M.A. (2007). Vulnerability of the elderly during natural hazard events. In Proceedings of the Hazards and Disasters Researchers Meeting, pp. 38–40. Boulder, Colo., July 11–12
Metadata
Title
Perceived Community Resilience to Floods and Droughts Induced by Climate Change in Semi-arid Ghana
Authors
Yaw Agyeman Boafo
Osamu Saito
Godfred Seidu Jasaw
Gerald A. B. Yiran
Rodolfo Dam Lam
Geetha Mohan
Gordana Kranjac-Berisavljevic
Copyright Year
2020
Publisher
Springer Singapore
Book
Sustainability Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa I

Print ISBN: 978-981-15-4457-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-15-4458-3

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4458-3_6