Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Unravelling the association between the impact of natural hazards and household poverty: evidence from the Indian Sundarban delta

  • Special Feature: Case Report
  • Sustainable Deltas: Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services, and Policy Implications
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Coastal regions have long been settled by humans due to their abundant resources for livelihoods, including agriculture, transportation, and rich biodiversity. However, natural and anthropogenic factors, such as climate change and sea-level rise, and land subsidence, population pressure, developmental activities, pose threats to coastal sustainability. Natural hazards, such as fluvial or coastal floods, impact poorer and more vulnerable communities greater than more affluent communities. Quantitative assessments of how natural hazards affect vulnerable communities in deltaic regions are still limited, hampering the design of effective management strategies to increase household and community resilience. Drawing from Driving Forces–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR), we quantify the associations between household poverty and the likelihood of material and human loss following a natural hazard using new survey data from 783 households within Indian Sundarban Delta community. The results suggest that the poorest households are significantly more likely to endure material and human losses following a natural hazard and repeated losses of livelihood make them more vulnerable to future risk. The results further suggest that salinization, tidal surge, erosion, and household location are also significant predictors of economic and human losses. Given the current and projected impact of climate change and importance of delta regions as the world’s food baskets, poverty reduction and increase societal resilience should be a primary pathway to strengthen the resilience of the poorest populations inhabiting deltas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

(Source: School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University)

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adger WN (1999) Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Dev 27(2):249–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersen KS (2010) Enlightenment and empowerment through power and light? Doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo. http://hdl.handle.net/10852/32609. Accessed 10 Nov 2013

  • Barbier EB (2014) Disaster management. A global strategy for protecting vulnerable coastal populations. Science 345:1250–1251

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Black R, Arnell NW, Adger WN, Thomas D, Geddes A (2013) Migration, immobility and displacement outcomes following extreme events. Environ Sci Policy 27:S32–S43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I, Wisner B (2014) At risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge

  • Bowen RE, Riley C (2003) Socio-economic indicators and integrated coastal management. Ocean Coast Manag 46(3):299–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brouwer R, Akter S, Brander L, Haque E (2007) Socioeconomic vulnerability and adaptation to environmental risk: a case study of climate change and flooding in Bangladesh. Risk Anal 27(2):313–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr ER, Wingard PM, Yorty SC, Thompson MC, Jensen NK, Roberson J (2007) Applying DPSIR to sustainable development. Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol 14(6):543–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter MR, Little PD, Mogues T, Negatu W (2007) Poverty traps and natural disasters in Ethiopia and Honduras. World Dev 35(5):835–856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty J, Tobin GA, Montz BE (2005) Population evacuation: assessing spatial variability in geophysical risk and social vulnerability to natural hazards. Nat Hazards Rev 6:23–33 (ISSN 1527–6988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers R, Conway G (1992) Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st Century. IDS discussion paper 296. IDS, Brighton

    Google Scholar 

  • Chand BK, Trivedi RK, Biswas A, Dubey SK, Beg MM (2012) Study on impact of saline water inundation on freshwater aquaculture in Sundarban using risk analysis tools. Explor Anim Med Res 2(2): 170–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Cherniack EP (2007) The impact of natural disasters on the elderly. Am J Disaster Med 3(3):133–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutter SL, Mitchell JT, Scott MS (2000) Revealing the vulnerability of people and places: a case study of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 90(4):713–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danda AA (2007) Surviving in the Sundarbans: threats and responses. Unpublished PhD, University of Twente, 203. http://doc.utwente.nl. Accessed 25 June 2013

  • Das GK (2006) Sunderbans: environment and ecosystem. Sarat Book Distributors

  • Dasgupta S, Mondal K, Basu K (2006) Dissemination of cultural heritage and impact of pilgrim tourism at Gangasagar Island. Anthropologist 8(1):11–15

    Google Scholar 

  • De Haas H (2007) Remittances, migration and social development: a conceptual review of the literature. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Debnath A (2013) Condition of agricultural productivity of Gosaba C.D. Block, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India after severe cyclone Aila. Int J Sci Res Publ 3(7) (ISSN 2250–3153)

  • Dercon S (2004) Risk, insurance and poverty: A Review. In: Dercon S (ed) Insurance against poverty. Oxford University Press, London, pp 9–37

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • EEA (1999) Environmental indicators: typology and overview. Tech Report 25. http://reports.eea.eu.int. Accessed 5 Nov 2012

  • Erdal MB (2012) Migration, remittances and development in South Asia. J Peace Res 49:744–744

    Google Scholar 

  • Fothergill A, Peek LA (2004) Poverty and disasters in the United States: a review of recent sociological findings. Nat Hazards 32(1):89–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foufoula-Georgiou E, Syvitski J, Paola C, Hoanh CT, Tuong P, Vörösmarty C, Kremer H, Brondizio E, Saito Y, and Twilley R (2011) International Year of Deltas 2013: A Proposal. Eos Trans Am Geophys Union 92(40): 340–41. doi:10.1029/2011EO400006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh A (2012) Living with changing climate: impact, vulnerability, and adaptation challenges in Indian Sundarbans. Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh T, Sengupta SK (1997) Morphological changes of Ghoramara Island, West Bengal: a documentation. Indian J Geogr Environ 2:64–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh T, Bhandari G, Hazra S (2003) Application of a “Bio-Engineering” technique to protect Ghoramara Island (Bay of Bengal) from severe erosion. J Coast Conserv 9:171–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GOI (2013) Press note on poverty estimates, 2011–12, Govt of India, Planning Commission, July 2013

  • Guha-Sapir D, Hoyois P, Below R (2014) Annual disaster statistical review 2013: the numbers and trends. CRED, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazra S (2003) Vulnerability assessment in a climate change scenario: a pilot study on ecologically sensitive Sundarban Island System, West Bengal. Technical report, MOEF, Govt. of India

  • Hazra S, Ghosh T, Das Gupta R, Sen G (2002) Sea Level and associated changes in the Sundarbans. Sci Cult 68(9–12):309–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazra S, Samanta K, Mukhopadhyay A, Akhand A (2010) Temporal change detection (2001–2008) study of Sundarban (final report). WWF and School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

    Google Scholar 

  • Hazra S, Das I, Samanta K, Bhadra T (2014) Impact of climate change in Sundarban area West Bengal, India. School of Oceanographic Studies, Earth Science & Climate Book 9326/17.02.00. Report submitted to Caritus India, SCiAF

  • HDR (2009) District Human Development Report. Development and Planning Department, Government of India

  • Hossain MA, Reza MI, Rahman S, Kayes I (2012) Climate change and its impacts on the livelihoods of the vulnerable people in the southwestern coastal zone in Bangladesh. In: Climate change and the sustainable use of water resources (pp. 237–259). Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • IFRCRCS (2010) World disasters report 2010. Focus on urban risk, in DMcClean (ed) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCRCS), Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007. Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2014) Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In: Barros VR, Field CB, Dokken DJ, Mastrandrea MD, Mach KJ, Bilir TE, Chatterjee M, Ebi KL, Estrada YO, Genova RC, Girma B, Kissel ES, Levy AN, MacCracken S, Mastrandrea PR, White LL (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1132

  • Jana A, Sheena S, Biswas A (2012) Morphological change study of Ghoramara Island, Eastern India using multi temporal satellite data. Res J Recent Sci 1(10):72–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Jorge R, Lourenço N, Machado CR, Rodrigues L (2002) Measuring, monitoring and managing sustainability in Indian coastal areas: the socioeconomic dimension. In: Littoral 2002, 6th international symposium proceedings: a multi-disciplinary symposium on coastal zone research, management and planning. Porto, 22–26 September 2002, vol 1, pp 237–247

  • Kasperson JX, Kasperson RE, Turner BL (eds) (1995) Regions at risk: comparisons of threatened environments. United Nations University Press, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Lal PN, Singh R, Holland P (2009) Relationship between natural disasters and poverty: a Fiji case study. UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), the World Bank, Pacific Island Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC)

  • Mazumdar S, Mazumdar PG, Kanjilal B, Singh PK (2014) Multiple shocks, coping and welfare consequences: natural disasters and health shocks in the Indian Sundarbans. PloS One 9(8):e105427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLeman R, Smit B (2006) Migration as an adaptation to climate change. Clim Change 76(1–2):31–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mousavi ME, Irish JL, Frey AE, Olivera F, Edge BL (2011) Global warming and hurricanes: the potential impact of hurricane intensification and sea level rise on coastal flooding. Clim Change 104(3–4):575–597

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers CA, Slack T, Singelmann J (2008) Social vulnerability and migration in the wake of disaster: the case of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Popul Environ 29(6):271–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann B, Vafeidis AT, Zimmermann J, Nicholls RJ (2015) Future coastal population growth and exposure to sea-level rise and coastal flooding-a global assessment. PloS One 10(3), e0118571. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OECD (1993) OECD core set of indicators for environmental performance reviews. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD (1998) Towards sustainable development: environmental indicators. OECD, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelling M, Uitto JI (2001) Small island developing states: natural disaster vulnerability and global change. Glob Environ Change Part B Environ Hazards 3(2):49–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poveda CA, Lipsett MG (2011) A review of sustainability assessment and sustainability/environmental rating systems and credit weighting tools. J Sustain Dev 4(6):36–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Purkait B (2009) Coastal erosion in response to wave dynamics operative in Sagar Island, Sundarban delta, India. Front Earth Sci. China 3(1): 21–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raha A, Das S, Banerjee K, Mitra A (2012) Climate change impacts on Indian Sunderbans: a time series analysis (1924–2008). Biodivers Conserv 21(5):1289–1307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossi PH, Wright JD, Weber-Burdin E, Pereira J (1983) Victims of the environment: loss from natural hazards in the United States, 1970–1980. Plenum Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • SDG (2013) India country report, 2013, statistical appraisal. Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India

  • Shamsuddoha M, Chowdhury RK (2007) Climate change impact and disaster vulnerabilities in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. COAST Trust, Dhaka

    Google Scholar 

  • Szabo S, Renaud F, Hossain Md S, Sebesvari Z, Matthews Z, Foufoula-Georgiou E, Nicholls RJ (2015a) Sustainable development goals offer new opportunities for tropical delta regions. Environ Sci Policy Sustain Dev 57(4):16–23

  • Szabo S, Hossain Md S, Adger WN, Matthews Z, Ahmed S, Lázár AN, Ahmad S (2015b) Soil salinity, household wealth and food insecurity in tropical deltas: evidence from south-west coast of Bangladesh. Sustain Sci 11(3):411–421. doi:10.1007/s11625-015-0337-1

  • Tessler ZD, Vörösmarty CJ, Grossberg M, Gladkova I, Aizenman H, Syvitski JPM, Foufoula-Georgiou E (2015) Profiling risk and sustainability in coastal deltas of the world. Science 349(6248):638–643

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • UNCSD (1997) From theory to practice: indicators for sustainable development. United Nations Division for Sustainable Development New York, United Nations

    Google Scholar 

  • UNCSD (2001) Indicators of sustainable development: guidelines and methodologies. Commission on Sustainable Development, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • UNISDR (2009) UNISDR terminology on disaster risk reduction. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat) (2007) Assessing the relationship between natural hazards and poverty: a conceptual and methodological proposal. Paper prepared for the UNISDR–UNDP Disaster Risk—Poverty Regional Workshops in Bangkok, Thailand (22–24 April 2008) and Bogotá, Colombia (10–11 June 2008), Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Viet CN (2008) Do foreign remittances matter to poverty and inequality? Evidence from Vietnam. Econ Bull 15: 1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • West Bengal State Action Plan on Climate Change (2012) Govt. of India

  • World Bank (2000) World bank development report: attacking poverty 1:170. World Bank, Washington DC. http://go.worldbank.org/7KWQQ1WVT0

  • World Bank (2013) Building resilience: integrating climate and disaster risk into development—the World Bank Group experience, vol 1, Rep. No. 82648. World Bank, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2014a) Building resilience for sustainable development of the Sundarban: strategy report. World Bank Group, Washington, DC. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/20162806/building-resilience-sustainable-development-sundarbans-strategy-report

  • World Bank (2014b) Financial protection against natural disasters: an operational framework for disaster risk financing and insurance. The World Bank, Washington DC

  • WWF (2010) Sundarbans: future imperfect climate adaptation report

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the ESPA Deltas project (Grant No. NE/J002755/1) and the Belmont Forum DELTAS project co-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Grant No. NE/L008726/1 and EAR-1342944). The Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This work is also a tribute to the “Sustainable Deltas 2015” (SD2015) Initiative endorsed by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), which aims to increase awareness of delta vulnerability worldwide and foster international collaboration, knowledge, and data exchange for actionable research toward delta sustainability. We gratefully acknowledge comments by Hao Xu, Omar de la Riva, Barbara Heitkamp, and Sayem Ahmed and comments by the handling Editor and anonymous reviewers.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Rituparna Hajra & Tuhin Ghosh

  2. Division of Social Statistics and Demography, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Sylvia Szabo & Zoe Matthews

  3. Environmental Sciences Initiative, CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, New York, USA

    Zachary Tessler

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, USA

    Efi Foufoula-Georgiou

Authors
  1. Rituparna Hajra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sylvia Szabo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zachary Tessler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tuhin Ghosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zoe Matthews
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rituparna Hajra.

Additional information

Handled by Fabrice Renaud, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security Bonn, Germany.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hajra, R., Szabo, S., Tessler, Z. et al. Unravelling the association between the impact of natural hazards and household poverty: evidence from the Indian Sundarban delta. Sustain Sci 12, 453–464 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0420-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0420-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation