Dependence on agriculture and ecosystem services for livelihood in Northeast India and Bhutan: vulnerability to climate change in the Tropical River Basins of the Upper Brahmaputra
Dependence on agriculture and ecosystem services for livelihood in Northeast India and Bhutan: vulnerability to climate change in the Tropical River Basins of the Upper Brahmaputra
The Upper Brahmaputra River Basin is prone to natural disasters and environmental stresses (floods, droughts and bank erosion, delayed rainfall, among others) creating an environment of uncertainty and setting the basin back in terms of socio-economic development. The climate change literature shows that agriculture and ecosystems and their services are highly climate sensitive, yet they are the main sources of livelihood that supports a large proportion of residents of the tributaries of the Brahmaputra River Basin. The continuous depletion of ecosystems and loss of agricultural outputs resulting from environmental stressors has a substantial impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of the basins residents, particularly the vulnerable rural poor. This paper uses spatially explicit data from Census, Household Surveys and Earth Observation to develop a transferable methodological approach which investigates the extent of dependence on agriculture and ecosystems as a source of livelihood in the contrasting sub-basins of the Brahmaputra River in the State of Assam, India and Bhutan, and the risk to these livelihood dependencies in these sub-basins due to potential environmental impacts of climate change. The results from this study constitute a case study in the development of a systematic and spatially explicit set of tools that inform and assist policy makers in the appropriate interventions to secure the livelihood benefits of sustainably managed agriculture in the face of environmental change.
107-121
Amoako Johnson, F.
e348fd15-9fe2-472f-a701-2980b8cec4d5
Hutton, C.W.
9102617b-caf7-4538-9414-c29e72f5fe2e
1 November 2014
Amoako Johnson, F.
e348fd15-9fe2-472f-a701-2980b8cec4d5
Hutton, C.W.
9102617b-caf7-4538-9414-c29e72f5fe2e
Amoako Johnson, F. and Hutton, C.W.
(2014)
Dependence on agriculture and ecosystem services for livelihood in Northeast India and Bhutan: vulnerability to climate change in the Tropical River Basins of the Upper Brahmaputra.
Climatic Change, 127 (1), .
(doi:10.1007/s10584-012-0573-7).
Abstract
The Upper Brahmaputra River Basin is prone to natural disasters and environmental stresses (floods, droughts and bank erosion, delayed rainfall, among others) creating an environment of uncertainty and setting the basin back in terms of socio-economic development. The climate change literature shows that agriculture and ecosystems and their services are highly climate sensitive, yet they are the main sources of livelihood that supports a large proportion of residents of the tributaries of the Brahmaputra River Basin. The continuous depletion of ecosystems and loss of agricultural outputs resulting from environmental stressors has a substantial impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of the basins residents, particularly the vulnerable rural poor. This paper uses spatially explicit data from Census, Household Surveys and Earth Observation to develop a transferable methodological approach which investigates the extent of dependence on agriculture and ecosystems as a source of livelihood in the contrasting sub-basins of the Brahmaputra River in the State of Assam, India and Bhutan, and the risk to these livelihood dependencies in these sub-basins due to potential environmental impacts of climate change. The results from this study constitute a case study in the development of a systematic and spatially explicit set of tools that inform and assist policy makers in the appropriate interventions to secure the livelihood benefits of sustainably managed agriculture in the face of environmental change.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 September 2012
Published date: 1 November 2014
Organisations:
Social Statistics & Demography
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 347613
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/347613
PURE UUID: ef11d009-db7c-4a29-83ff-bc1c6599fde5
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 28 Jan 2013 15:15
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:08
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
F. Amoako Johnson
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
