To construct social vulnerability index: district wise, Karnataka state
Student name: Ms Jyoti Nair
Guide: Dr Prateek Sharma
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Ban
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Sunil Nautiyal
Abstract: Biophysical vulnerability adds on to the social vulnerability. Vulnerability is the potential for
incurring loss, those already in poor conditions happen to be affected more so with the
overlapping biophysical vulnerabilities. Karnataka is a diverse state in terms of socioeconomic
conditions as well as biodiversity. Majority of the population depend on
agriculture for the livelihood. The climate is so diverse that most of the districts have their
own characteristics. The selection of variables was done using the DPSIR framework. The
study attempts to calculate the social vulnerability index taking Social, Water, Agriculture,
Health and Climate components. The study uses Factor analysis and Iyengar and Sudarshan
method to calculate the index for the components which is then aggregated using simple
average. Majorly the cluster of districts from the northern Karnataka Region is found to be
vulnerable.
Keywords: Vulnerability, Socio-economic, DPSIR, Vulnerability Index, Karnataka, Climate
Change
