Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change: Understanding and Awareness Among Coastal Communities in The Gambia

Abstract

The coastal zone of The Gambia provides important ecosystems services, including habitats and breeding grounds for aquatic animals, plants and migratory birds. This area is vulnerable to climate change hazards as cited in literature. Therefore, this study aims to assess the awareness and understanding of climate change among coastal communities in The Gambia and their level of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. The research utilised Landsat imageries of the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020, freely downloaded from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website to evaluate the extent of land cover transformation along the coastal zone. Mann–Kendall trend test and Sen’s slope estimator were utilized to assess the trend and slope magnitude of key climate variables (i.e. total annual rainfall (mm), minimum temperature, maximum temperature (oc), windspeed (knots) and relative humidity (%)) along the coast. Furthermore, climate change vulnerability index assessment was conducted to evaluate and compare the vulnerability of coastal cells to extreme climate events from 1990 to 2020. Finally, qualitative approach was used to assess the level of participation of state and non-state actors in building resilience to climate change. The findings of the research had demonstrated that the coastal environment had undergone significant modifications as a result of multiple stressors within the last 30 years. The extent of transformation for each of the land cover characteristics indicated an increase in barren land by 46% and built up by 680% and a decrease in vegetation cover by 35%, water bodies by 31% and wetlands by 14%. Consequently, these changes are associated with increased human population around 10-25km of The Gambia’s coastline from 1990 to 2020. The results further showed an increasing positive precipitation (mm), maximum and minimum temperature (oc) trends along the coastal zone. Furthermore, the study shows that there is low level of climate change understanding (31%) among coastal communities even though majority (78%) are aware of climate change. Moreover, the coastal zone of The Gambia on average is vulnerable to climate change with a vulnerability index score of 0.58 and an exposure index of 0.57. However, the differences in adaptive capacity and socio-economic characteristics of the coastal households had resulted to differences in sensitivity, exposure and vulnerability observed among the study cells. With the limited ability of individual households to adapt to the varying consequences of climate change and with insufficient interactions and support from state and non-state actors in building resilience to climate change, these communities also lack organisational structures to enable them to tackle climate change issues affecting their livelihood. Therefore, there is need for mobilisation of appropriate level of capacity, funding, diverse skills and knowledge systems within households, communities and state and non-state institutions to address the socioeconomic and environmental hazards affecting the coastal environment and inhabitants.