Multi-scale participatory indicator development approaches for climate change risk assessment in West Africa

Asare-Kyei, Daniel, Kloos, Julia and Renaud, Fabrice G., (2015). Multi-scale participatory indicator development approaches for climate change risk assessment in West Africa. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 11 13-34

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Asare-Kyei, Daniel
    Kloos, Julia
    Renaud, Fabrice G.
    Title Multi-scale participatory indicator development approaches for climate change risk assessment in West Africa
    Appearing in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
    Volume 11
    Publication Date 2015-03
    Place of Publication Philadelphia
    Publisher Elsevier
    Start page 13
    End page 34
    Language eng
    Abstract A multi-scale participatory process was used to extend the classical approach of indicator development for risk assessment in West Africa. The approach followed a step-wise procedure to develop Indicator Reference Sheet based on conceptual risk assessment framework and combined with knowledge of local experts iteratively selected through snowball approach. Existing risk assessment frameworks being modified to account for multiple hazards were merged into a coherent framework to categorize the components of risks. Local experts including at risk populations were constituted into technical working groups to elicit important processes shaping risks at multiple spatial scales. The results showed that more than half of the designated local level indicators and over two-third of macro scale indicators are rarely used in present risk assessments in the region. Additionally, although an indicator may be common to three countries, their differential rankings will result in differences in explaining the risks faced by people in different societies. However, there were indicators that were unique to each country and this has wider implications for risk assessment that uses common indicators for different countries for comparative purposes. An important output of the study is the identification of locally and nationally evaluated indicator sets for assessing the risk to natural hazards. While it has neither been optimal to completely neglect classical approaches nor to take as an absolute fact opinions from local experts, more emphasis should be paid to the latter in risk assessment that is supposed to serve the very people on whose behalf the assessment is done.
    Keyword Multiple hazards
    Participatory assessment
    Risk
    West Africa
    Copyright Holder Elsevier
    Copyright Year 2015
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    DOI doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2014.11.001
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    Created: Fri, 29 May 2015, 23:23:18 JST