Abstract
Flood is found to be a frequent phenomenon. Over the past few decades, Pakistan has been the home of climate-related disasters like floods. This paper attempts to examine the effect of floods on the rural communities; those are vulnerable to floods, and their livelihood patterns were damaged due to flooding events in Hazara Division. This research study assessed the causes, the impact, and the aftermath of flooding and their link with climate change in Hazara Division (Torghar, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, and Haripur). The significance of environmental changes and flood’s threats were discovered and examined through the logistic regressions and then pathway analysis. The findings showed that floods, directly and indirectly, affected the livelihood, social standing, and physical and economic status of rural communities. Rise in poverty level is also reported in already vulnerable communities that further increase their exposure to risks and hazards. This study calls for local government strengthening, early warning systems, and (non)financial assistance in times of needs to minimize the floods risk and disastrous impacts on localities and resources.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Vulnerable households in this case were the households residing directly in the line of the water channel.
References
Adger WN, Huq S, Brown K, Conway D, Hulme M (2003) Adaptation to climate change in the developing world. Prog Dev Stud 3:179–195
Bathrellos GD, Gaki-Papanastassiou K, Skilodimou HD, Papanastassiou D, Chousianitis KG (2012) Potential suitability for urban planning and industry development using natural hazard maps and geological–geomorphological parameters. Environ Earth Sci 66:537–548
Bigsten A (1996) The circular migration of smallholders in Kenya. J Afr Econ 5:1–20
Botzen W, Van Den Bergh J (2009) Managing natural disaster risks in a changing climate. Environ Hazards 8:209–225
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 27:313–326
Cash RA et al (2013) Reducing the health effect of natural hazards in Bangladesh. Lancet 382:2094–2103
Chang H, Franczyk J, Kim C (2009) What is responsible for increasing flood risks? The case of Gangwon Province, Korea. Nat Hazards 48:339
Chaudhuri S, Jalan J, Suryahadi A (2002) Assessing household vulnerability to poverty from cross-sectional data: a methodology and estimates from Indonesia https://doi.org/10.7916/D85149GF
Colten CE, Kates RW, Laska SB (2008) Community resilience: Lessons from new orleans and hurricane katrina CARRI Report 3
Coninx I (2010) WWW questions on social flood impacts answered: what, why and who. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Few R, Tran PG (2010) Climatic hazards, health risk and response in Vietnam: case studies on social dimensions of vulnerability. Glob Environ Chang 20:529–538
GoP (2018) Provisional province wise population by sex and rural/urban. Government of Pakistan, Islamabad
Kreimer A, Arnold M (2000) Managing disaster risk in emerging economies. The World Bank
Lee H (2007) Intergovernmental panel on climate change
Lindell MK, Whitney DJ (2000) Correlates of household seismic hazard adjustment adoption. Risk Anal 20:13–26
Looney R (2012) Economic impacts of the floods in Pakistan. Contemporary South Asia 20:225–241
MacKinnon DP, Lockwood CM, Brown CH, Wang W, Hoffman JM (2007) The intermediate endpoint effect in logistic and probit regression. Clinical Trials 4(5):499–513
NDMA (2011) Annual report 2010. National Disaster Management Authority, Islamabad
Osbahr H, Twyman C, Adger WN, Thomas DS (2010) Evaluating successful livelihood adaptation to climate variability and change in southern Africa. Ecol Soc:15
PDMA (2010) Pakistan floods 2010 - preliminary damage and needs assessment. Pakistan Disaster Management Authority, Islamabad
Pyne SK, Samanta G (2009) Livestock management at different levels of disaster strategy and execution. Indian J Anim Res 43:99–102
Rayhan I (2008) Assessing household vulnerability and coping strategies to floods: a comparative study of flooded and non-flooded areas in Bangladesh, 2005. Cuvillier Verlag
Salma S, Rehman S, Shah MA (2012) Rainfall trends in different climate zones of Pakistan. Pak J Meteorol:9
Shimi AC, Parvin GA, Biswas C, Shaw R (2010) Impact and adaptation to flood. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal
Stern PC (2000) New environmental theories: toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. J Soc Issues 56:407–424
Stern PC, Dietz T, Abel T, Guagnano GA, Kalof L (1999) A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Hum Ecol Rev:81–97
Viswanath B et al (2013) Gender differences in the psychological impact of tsunami. Int J Soc Psychiatry 59:130–136
Walker GP (2006) Addressing environmental inequalities: flood risk. Environment Agency, Bristol
Warraich H, Zaidi AK, Patel K (2011) Floods in Pakistan: a public health crisis. Bull World Health Organ 89:236–237
WB (2010) Pakistan floods 2010: preliminary damage and needs assessment. World Bank, Islamabad
WHO (2015) Annual report of Pakistan. World Health Organization, Geneva
Xu J, Grumbine RE, Shrestha A, Eriksson M, Yang X, Wang Y, Wilkes A (2009) The melting Himalayas: cascading effects of climate change on water, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Conserv Biol 23:520–530
Yamin F, Rahman A, Huq S (2005) Vulnerability, adaptation and climate disasters: a conceptual overview
Yodmani S (2001) Disaster risk management and vulnerability reduction: protecting the poor. The Center
Acknowledgements
The authors owe a debt of gratitude to editor-in-chief and anonymous reviewers for their valuable time and comment to refine the findings presented in this paper.
Funding
Thanks to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Government of Pakistan, for the financial support under the thematic research grant Ref: 1-HEC/HRD/HAS/SS/2017/17369.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khayyam, U., Noureen, S. Assessing the adverse effects of flooding for the livelihood of the poor and the level of external response: a case study of Hazara Division, Pakistan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 19638–19649 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08303-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08303-4