UC Santa Barbara

The intensity, frequency, duration, and spatial extent of weather and climate extremes are projected to experience changes. However, the impacts of such hazards are not straightforward. This issue is challenging mainly because natural hazards by themselves do not wholly explain the experienced impacts. Furthermore, the latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change moves away from the idea of vulnerability in terms of a hazard’s outcome and takes an approach in which vulnerability consists of pre-existing conditions that are exacerbated by climate variability and/or change. This framework is closer to that of the disaster risk reduction community and introduces approaches where the focus is on understanding those social vulnerabilities.

This dissertation aims to enhance assessment tools that support the identification of those most vulnerable to climate hazards. Peruvian farmers from Puno are used as a case study, examined with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This dissertation presents three studies that aim to enhance social vulnerability assessments. The first study uses qualitative data: ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, and local agencies reports. The other two studies used 22 quantitative indicators extracted from a dataset of over 200,000 farmers. The first of these two creates a composite index to explore social vulnerability at the farm, census unit, and municipality levels. The second quantitative study uses geons to create homogenous areas of vulnerability that do not necessarily correspond to administrative boundaries.

Results point to a need to improve social capital among farmers as well as our need to increase our understanding of local social networks among farmers. The research revealed concerns people have with indoor thermal comfort as well as challenges in predicting and reporting droughts in the region. Social vulnerability maps and reported impacts were spatially associated, especially when weather hazards were not extreme. As expected, spatial patterns fluctuated by aggregation levels. The census unit level revealed patterns following specific topographic features in Puno. Furthermore, this dissertation showed how qualitative and quantitative methods can build on each other to create a more comprehensive assessment. Results from the dissertation have the potential to serve as scaffolding for future adaptation strategies in Puno and, eventually, in other areas where agriculture provides people’s main livelihood.