ASSESSMENT OF THE VULNERABILITY OF SENEGALESE FARMING HOUSEHOLDS TO CLIMATE CHANGE: INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT APPROACH AND MAPPING OF INDICATORS USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS).

Mouhamadou Lamine NDIMBLANE, West African Science Service on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL)

Climate change could exacerbate the vulnerability of agricultural households; whose livelihoods mainly depend on income from agricultural production. However, there is a lack of knowledge on certain questions such as “Who is vulnerable?” », “What is the degree of vulnerability? », “What is the capacity to adapt? », “How is vulnerability distributed geographically? This misinformation from political decision-makers about the level of vulnerability of people and their priority needs poses a problem for the effectiveness of public investments. This research attempts to answer these questions to shed light on how agricultural households are affected by climatic events such as drought and floods. A sample of 668 agricultural households distributed in 33 communes and two different agro-ecological zones was studied using an integrated and spatial approach combining socio-economic and socio-demographic indicators, institutional factors of households, and environmental characteristics, in order to create the vulnerability index of farmers.