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Climate risks and socio-economic vulnerability in Tamil Nadu, India

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Abstract

Climate risks, emerging threats to humanity, increase the level of disaster in many ways. A comprehensive understanding of climate risks and their impacts is a pre-requisite for developing suitable adaptation strategies toward sustainable development. This paper assessed the socio-economic vulnerability based on sustainable development goals (SDG) in the state of Tamil Nadu in the context of climate risks to comprehend the links between climate risks and the physical setting of Tamil Nadu, along with its capability to adapt. An indicator-based methodology of vulnerability assessment as per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was adopted to understand the links between the sensitivity of the state and its ability to cope and adapt. The climate extremities, which cause risks, were determined based on India Meteorological Department (IMD) norms. The indicators which directly or indirectly label specific/integrated goals of SDG were used as sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicators. Data from each district for all identified indicators were collected from authentic sources and categorized into four components: natural, social, economic, and infrastructure. The indicators were analyzed and weights were assigned to the indicators using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The district-wise vulnerability indices were calculated and categorized as natural vulnerability index (NVI), social vulnerability index (SVI), economic vulnerability index (EVI), infrastructure vulnerability index (IVI), and overall cumulative vulnerability index (CVI). The study revealed the significant contributing indicators of risk and the vulnerable districts of Tamil Nadu. Ariyalur was identified as the most vulnerable district due to its high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity to climate risks. The other top vulnerable districts were Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thiruvarur, Thiruvallur, Thanjavur, Perambalur, Pudukottai, and Thiruvannamalai. The outcome of the study may be deliberated as an indicator of alarming socio-economic and infrastructural conditions of the districts and may help planners to prioritize their actions toward climate resilience.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wishes to acknowlede The Director, Depeartment of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu for the support. The authors are thankful to all the data providers: State Planning Commission, Department of Economics and Statistics, Directorate of Family Welfare-Govt. of Tamil Nadu, Census of India, Forest survey of India-MoEF&CC, Health Management Information System-National Health Mission, Agriculture Census Division portal-National Information Centre, Government of India for making their data publically available and IMD Pune, Government of India for providing gridded data. The authors thank Mr. Sanjo Jose for his help in climate extremities work.

Funding

This work is supported by DST–SPLICE, Government of India (DST/SPLICE/CCP/NMSKCC/ PR-63/Tamil Nadu /2016(G) dated 09.11.2016) and Depertment of Environment , Government of Tamil Nadu.

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  1. Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management, CEG Campus, Anna University, Chennai, 600025, India

    Anushiya Jeganathan, Ramachandran Andimuthu & Palanivelu Kandasamy

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  1. Anushiya Jeganathan
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  2. Ramachandran Andimuthu
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Anushiya Jeganathan: data curation, analysis, drafted original script. Ramachandran Andimuthu and Palanivelu Kandasamy: constructive comments and suggestions to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anushiya Jeganathan.

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Jeganathan, A., Andimuthu, R. & Kandasamy, P. Climate risks and socio-economic vulnerability in Tamil Nadu, India. Theor Appl Climatol 145, 121–135 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03595-z

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