“Listening to the Sounds of the Water”: Bringing Together Local Knowledge and Biophysical Data to Understand Climate-Related Hazard Dynamics

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science

Sochanny Hak¹  Andreas Neef¹  Chanchhaya Chhom²  Kevin Davies³  Floris van Ogtrop⁴  Mark Williams⁵  Savuti Henningsen⁵  Natasha Pauli⁶  Bryan Boruff⁶ 

[1]Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, The University of Auckland, 1142, Auckland, New Zealand

[2]Faculty of Development Studies, Royal University of Phnom Penh, 12150, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

[3]School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, 2006, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

[4]School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, 2006, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

[5]UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 6009, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

[6]UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 6009, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

[7]Department of Geography and Planning, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 6009, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

关键词: Cambodia;    Local knowledge;    Mekong River;    Natural hazards;    Participatory mapping;    Remote sensing;   

DOI  :  10.1007/s13753-021-00336-8

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Integrating local knowledge and scientific information can aid in co-developing locally relevant approaches for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Communities along the Mekong River have adapted to variability in temperature, rainfall, and flooding patterns over time. Rapid environmental change in the Mekong Basin presents a new set of challenges related to drought, altered seasonal rainfall, more frequent high-flow flood events, and water withdrawals for hydropower and irrigation. We present a multi-method approach to understand how local knowledge of the spatial and temporal patterns of floods, droughts, and rainfall can be integrated with scientific information along a flood-prone section of the lower Mekong River in Kratie Province, Cambodia. Participatory hazard mapping of community members’ knowledge of the movement of floodwaters through the landscape enabled interpretation of flood extent mapping using Synthetic Aperture Radar images from the Sentinel-1A satellite. Seasonal calendars of weather patterns and livelihood activities, together with local indicators of flooding, rainfall, and drought were compared with trends in 35 years of rainfall data, and highlighted “pressure points” at the beginning and end of the rainy season where agriculture may be particularly impacted by climate change. We discuss potential applications of our findings for adaptation and hazard planning.

【 授权许可】

CC BY