Perceived differential vulnerability and climate change-related hazards in informal settlements in Accra, Ghana: re-thinking vulnerability to climate change in urban areas

ABSTRACT Urbanisation in developing countries has co-evolved with exposure to hazards among the urban poor. Yet, current understandings of hazard vulnerability are context-specific and limiting for shedding light on perceived vulnerability to climate change in the context of informal urbanisation. The overall perception of informal dwellers on the causative and local factors that underly the processes of informal urbanisation and their hazard exposure and consequent vulnerability tends to receive less attention. Using Accra as a case and applying mixed methods, this paper analyses informal residents’ perceived vulnerability to hazards. A total of 582 households’ surveys and 3 institutional key informant interviews were conducted. The paper argues that hazard vulnerability in informal settlements is spatially differentiated and differentially perceived. The main factor associated with respondents’ perceived vulnerability was “threats of eviction”. Examination of informal dwellers’ hazard responses will improve our understanding of the influence of their perceptions on hazard responses in the context of informal urbanisation.

[1]  G. Runeson,et al.  Access to Early Warning for Climate Change-Related Hazards in Informal Settlements of Accra, Ghana , 2022, Climate.

[2]  M. Shah,et al.  Local Perceptions and Scientific Knowledge of Climate Change: Perspectives of Informal Dwellers and Institutions in Accra, Ghana , 2022, Sustainability.

[3]  P. Cobbinah,et al.  Climate change in rural Ghana: perceptions and adaptive responses , 2021, Local Environment.

[4]  Timothy King Avordeh,et al.  Quantitative estimation of the impact of climate change on residential electricity demand for the city of Greater Accra, Ghana , 2021, International Journal of Energy Sector Management.

[5]  S. Huq,et al.  LOSS AND DAMAGE , 2013, The Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

[6]  Rebecca A. Johns,et al.  Tale of two neighbourhoods: biophysical and socio-economic vulnerability to climate change in Pinellas County, Florida , 2020 .

[7]  Juanle Wang,et al.  Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service: A Paradigm Shift from Disaster Data Towards Knowledge Services , 2019, Pure and Applied Geophysics.

[8]  P. K. Asabere,et al.  Developer constraints on housing supply in urban Ghana , 2019, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.

[9]  Mohammed Abubakari,et al.  Cities and floods: A pragmatic insight into the determinants of households’ coping strategies to floods in informal Accra, Ghana , 2019, Jamba.

[10]  D. Inkoom,et al.  The production of flood vulnerability in Accra, Ghana: Re-thinking flooding and informal urbanisation , 2018 .

[11]  M. Nursey-Bray,et al.  Gendered perception and vulnerability to climate change in urban slum communities in Accra, Ghana , 2018, Regional Environmental Change.

[12]  Ralph Horne,et al.  Assessment of social vulnerability to climate change at the local scale: development and application of a Social Vulnerability Index , 2017, Climatic Change.

[13]  George Owusu,et al.  Assessment of coastal communities’ vulnerability to floods using indicator-based approach: a case study of Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana , 2017, Natural Hazards.

[14]  J. Isunju,et al.  Hazards and vulnerabilities among informal wetland communities in Kampala, Uganda , 2016 .

[15]  G. Mcgranahan,et al.  The urban informal economy, local inclusion and achieving a global green transformation , 2016 .

[16]  R. Bryant.  The International Handbook of Political Ecology , 2015 .

[17]  Christelle Legay,et al.  Planning adaptation based on local actors’ knowledge and participation: a climate governance experiment , 2015 .

[18]  Selasi Kofi Attipoe,et al.  An assessment of flood mitigation measures in Accra, Ghana , 2015 .

[19]  E. Frimpong Boamah,et al.  The three-dimensional causes of flooding in Accra, Ghana , 2015 .

[20]  M. Hjerpe,et al.  The roles of non-state actors in climate change governance: understanding agency through governance profiles , 2016, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics.

[21]  Idowu Ajibade,et al.  Climate extremes and housing rights: A political ecology of impacts, early warning and adaptation constraints in Lagos slum communities , 2014 .

[22]  C. Wamsler,et al.  Moving beyond short-term coping and adaptation , 2014 .

[23]  Md. Mohataz Hossain,et al.  Individual, communal and institutional responses to climate change by low-income households in Khulna, Bangladesh , 2014 .

[24]  Paul Chinowsky,et al.  Climate Change and Infrastructure Impacts: Comparing the Impact on Roads in ten Countries through 2100 , 2014 .

[25]  N. A. Anyidoho.  Informal Economy Monitoring Study: Street Vendors in Accra, Ghana , 2013 .

[26]  D. Hulme,et al.  Contrasting adaptation responses by squatters and low-income tenants in Khulna, Bangladesh , 2013 .

[27]  Dacosta Aboagye.  Living with Familiar Hazards: Flood Experiences and Human Vulnerability in Accra, Ghana , 2012, Articulo – revue de sciences humaines.

[28]  Tumpale Sakijege,et al.  Flooding, flood risks and coping strategies in urban informal residential areas: The case of Keko Machungwa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania , 2012 .

[29]  L. Guay.  Cities and climate change , 2012 .

[30]  A. Gilbert.  De Soto's The Mystery of Capital: reflections on the book's public impact , 2012 .

[31]  I. Luginaah,et al.  “You Either Pay More Advance Rent or You Move Out”: Landlords/Ladies’ and Tenants’ Dilemmas in the Low-income Housing Market in Accra, Ghana , 2012 .

[32]  M. Owusu,et al.  “If in doubt, count”: the role of community-driven enumerations in blocking eviction in Old Fadama, Accra , 2012 .

[33]  Stephen Adaawen.  Eking out a living : the livelihood implications of urban space regulation on street hawking in Accra, Ghana , 2012 .

[34]  J Twigg,et al.  Disaster risk reduction , 2011 .

[35]  Steven R. Brechin,et al.  Perceptions of climate change worldwide , 2011 .

[36]  J. Briggs.  The land formalisation process and the peri-urban zone of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania , 2011 .

[37]  B. Braun,et al.  Floods in megacity environments: vulnerability and coping strategies of slum dwellers in Dhaka/Bangladesh , 2011 .

[38]  R. Kasperson,et al.  Integrating Science and Policy: Vulnerability and Resilience in Global Environmental Change , 2011 .

[39]  Charles F. Parker,et al.  Looking for Leaders: Perceptions of Climate Change Leadership among Climate Change Negotiation Participants , 2011, Global Environmental Politics.

[40]  A. Allen,et al.  Built-in resilience: learning from grassroots coping strategies for climate variability , 2010 .

[41]  Monalisa Chatterjee,et al.  Slum dwellers response to flooding events in the megacities of India , 2010 .

[42]  N. Karley.  FLOODING AND PHYSICAL PLANNING IN URBAN AREAS IN WEST AFRICA: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF ACCRA, GHANA , 2009 .

[43]  Mark Pelling,et al.  Disaster Risk Reduction: Cases from Urban Africa , 2008 .

[44]  Lindsey R. Barnes,et al.  A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters , 2008 .

[45]  S. Brody,et al.  Examining the Relationship Between Physical Vulnerability and Public Perceptions of Global Climate Change in the United States , 2008 .

[46]  B. Affeltranger.  Hidup Akrab dengan Bencana : Sebuah Tinjauan Global Tentang Inisiatif - Inisiatif Pengurangan Bencana = Living with Risk : A Global Review of Disaster Reduction Initiatives , 2008 .

[47]  Lynn P. Nygaard,et al.  Why different interpretations of vulnerability matter in climate change discourses , 2007 .

[48]  S. Solomon.  The Physical Science Basis : Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[49]  Masson-Delmotte,et al.  The Physical Science Basis , 2007 .

[50]  Amy Luers,et al.  Assessing the Vulnerability of Social-Environmental Systems , 2006 .

[51]  B. Smit,et al.  Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability , 2006 .

[52]  T. Grothmann,et al.  People at Risk of Flooding: Why Some Residents Take Precautionary Action While Others Do Not , 2006 .

[53]  Mark Pelling,et al.  Measuring urban vulnerability to natural disaster risk: Benchmarks for sustainability , 2006 .

[54]  R. Kasperson,et al.  A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[55]  C. Oelofse.  A Critical Realist Perspective on Urban Environmental Risk: A case study of an informal settlement in South Africa , 2003 .

[56]  N. Alsayyad.  Urban Informality as a “New” Way of Life , 2003 .

[57]  Doracie B. Zoleta-Nantes.  Differential Impacts of Flood Hazards Among the Street Children, the Urban Poor and Residents of Wealthy Neighborhoods in Metro Manila, Philippines , 2002 .

[58]  R. Meinzen-Dick,et al.  Legal Pluralism and Dynamic Property Rights , 2002 .

[59]  W. Neil Adger,et al.  ADVANCING A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES , 2001 .

[60]  M. Pelling.  The political ecology of flood hazard in urban Guyana , 1999 .

[61]  B. Wisner,et al.  At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters , 1996 .

[62]  N. Long.  From paradigm lost or paradigm regained?; the case for an actor-oriented sociology of development. , 1990 .

[63]  H. D. Soto.  The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World , 1989 .

[64]  L. E. V. K. I. V. Taal,et al.  Revista europea de estudios latinoamericanos y del Caribe = European review of Latin American and Caribbean studies , 1989 .

[65]  Lon R. White,et al.  WHO IS AT RISK , 1984 .