A community-based approach to mainstream human-nature interactions into coastal risk governance: A case of Katrenikona, India

Abstract

Coastal rural communities, being intricately associated with their ecological settings, are often highly vulnerable to climate change. Amongst the many approaches of reducing the coastal vulnerabilities and achieving climate change adaptation, a potential solution is to improve risk governance through integrated coastal zone management. The coastal risk governance signifies not only the actions of the state but also of other stakeholders, especially the local communities. Community-based approaches have also for long been advocated for effective adaptation and mitigation against climate adversities. While human-nature interactions can significantly influence disaster risks, this research makes an attempt to understand various decisions and choices that a coastal rural community makes based on such interactions to mitigate and manage the climate-induced adversities. Through structured interviews, this research first identifies the significant domains that reflect on the prevailing human-nature interactions, after which the choice modelling technique is utilized to comprehend the community priorities for better climate risk governance, with a specific focus on coastal rural settlements of Katrenikona (Andhra Pradesh, India). The application of this methodology resulted in the formulation of a baseline for local coastal governance, which can be useful for informing various levels within local governments. The baseline consists of an assessment of the different community resilience domains derived based on the prevailing interactions of local communities with their surrounding ecological elements and measured by indicators of local coastal governance. The concept and method for measuring coastal risk governance based on community preferences are potentially replicable, and it can help to track the progress towards longer-term coastal management and local climate adaptation goals. At the same time, it can be turned into a self-evaluation tool to assist the local governments in reflecting on pertinent pathways involving community actions for effectively managing various climate risks and ecological impacts.

Enhancing Resilience in Coastal Regions from a Socio-Ecological Perspective: A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh, India

“…The lens of human-nature interactions supports unlocking the hidden but rapidly changing components of the coastal SES [17], which is partly in the hands of local communities and their choices [72]. It was found that despite the existing illiteracy, remoteness, and technological and economic hurdles in the region, the FCM method proves to be effective for accumulating all previous experiences as well as the present knowledge of local communities regarding the SES of the study area.…”

“…Many global reports-for instance, the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction, the IPCC SROC 2019 report, and others [4]-have stressed the important role of communities in improving disaster risk decision-making and unraveling the complexity and dynamic nature of SES. Although the importance of uncertainty is highlighted in many studies [17], only a few of these prioritize the uncertainty generated by individual influence [18], policy decisions [19], and sustainability at the global level. As a result, it is difficult to forecast how disaster-related policies will affect the future path of resilience and sustainability, especially in complex and dynamic SESs such as coastal rural systems.…”