Журнал наук о Земле и изменения климата

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Assessment of District Level Climate Vulnerability of Mizoram, India: Water Resources Approach

Samuel Lalmalsawma, James Lalnunzira Hrahsel

Mizoram, one of the north-eastern states in India, is predominantly of rugged hilly terrain with majority of tribal populations living in villages scattered along the upper reaches of hill ranges. The high dependency of people to natural resources, rainfed agricultural practices relying wholly of southwest monsoon makes the region highly vulnerable to climate change exacerbated by poor development infrastructure, land use and land cover change, forest loss and degradation. It is imperative that the vulnerability of the state is addressed to assist in developing practical and reliable plans to increase resilience against long term climate change. The intrinsic properties and infrastructures currently available which corresponds to the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the state in terms of domestic water resources availability are focused here to assess the inherent vulnerability to unprecedented changes than can be caused by climate stress. The assessment approach follows analytical framework by selecting indicators that defines vulnerability criteria across all the districts in the state. Indicators were given weights are per the best reflection to ground reality with the help of stakeholder consultations. Composite Vulnerability Index (CVI) was calculated for each district from normalized weighted values across all indicators. Districts were ranked and categorized into high, medium, and low vulnerability based on their CVI values which were then represented in geo-spatial map. Important drivers of vulnerability across all districts were then determined by calculating the contributions of each individual indicator to overall vulnerability. The calculated CVI was highest for Champhai district making it the most vulnerable district. CVI was lowest for Mamit district making it the least vulnerable district. Across all districts, limited availability of ground water resources, less forest cover and water stress index were the top drivers of overall vulnerability.