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Ecological and Socio-Economic Vulnerability to Climate Change in Some Selected Mouzas of Gosaba Block, the Sundarbans

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Global Geographical Heritage, Geoparks and Geotourism

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Abstract

This paper is an attempt to recognize ecological and socio-economic vulnerability to climate change in some selected mouzas of Gosaba Block, Indian Sundarbans. Ecological vulnerability has been identified by intensive studies on plant morphology (plant height, leaf area, leaf count, branches/plant) and stomata index to probe into the variation between the plants growing in salt-affected areas and those growing in the areas free from such phenomena. GPS survey has been conducted to perceive stretches of embankment breaching to perceive physical vulnerability. Socio-economic vulnerability has been worked out from the information and facts extracted from the primary household survey. Data collected on socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, health, food, water, social networks, natural disaster and climatic variability, indicators for Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI), and Livelihood Vulnerability Index–Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI–IPCC) have been used to measure and evaluate the vulnerability of individual mouzas suffering from recurrent flooding, coastal erosion, and embankment breaching. The findings may assist the government and non-government groups to improve sectors for better coping and adaptation strategies for the poor households located in the marginal areas.

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Acknowledgments

The first author is thankful to UGC, New Delhi, India, for providing fellowship to carry out research work. We are immensely thankful to Dr. Avipsita Chatterjee, Research Fellow, University of Calcutta for helping us with LVI and LVI–IPCC calculation and Bhabatosh Roy, Assistant Teacher in Geography, Bhawani High School, Jalpaiguri, for helping in the collection of data. Equally, we are thankful to Dr. Moumita Chatterjee, Project Fellow, Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, and Mr. Adwaita Das, CSIR-JRF, Department of Botany, University of Burdwan, for providing necessary help in biological vulnerability analysis. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments and assistance in the improvement of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Bardhaman, West Bengal, India

    Nabanita Mukherjee & Giyasuddin Siddique

Authors
  1. Nabanita Mukherjee
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  2. Giyasuddin Siddique
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Correspondence to Nabanita Mukherjee .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    R.B. Singh

  2. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Dongying Wei

  3. Department of Geography, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Subhash Anand

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Mukherjee, N., Siddique, G. (2021). Ecological and Socio-Economic Vulnerability to Climate Change in Some Selected Mouzas of Gosaba Block, the Sundarbans. In: Singh, R., Wei, D., Anand, S. (eds) Global Geographical Heritage, Geoparks and Geotourism. Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4956-4_7

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