Community vulnerability assessment index for flood prone savannah agro-ecological zone: A case study of Wa West District, Ghana

Abstract The savannah regions of Northern Ghana are characterized by smallholder farming systems and high levels of poverty. Over the past two decades, communities in the regions have become more prone to climate and human-induced disasters in the form of annual floods and droughts. This study evaluates the degree and magnitude of vulnerability in four communities subjected to similar climate change induced flood events and propose intervention options. The study employs rural participatory research approaches in developing four vulnerability categories namely socio-economic, ecological, engineering and political; which were used to develop indicators that aided the calculation of total community vulnerability index for each community. The findings indicate that the state of a community's vulnerability to flood is a composite effect of the four vulnerability index categories which may act independently or concurrently to produce the net effect. Based on a synthesis of total vulnerability obtained in each community, Baleufili was found to be the least vulnerable to flood due to its high scores in engineering, socio-economic and political vulnerability indicators. Baleufili and Bankpama were the most ecologically vulnerable communities. The selection of vulnerability index categories and associated indicators were grounded in specific local peculiarities that evolved out of engagement with community stakeholders and expert knowledge of the socioecological landscape. Thus, the Total Community Vulnerability Assessment Framework (TCVAF) provides an effective decision support for identifying communities’ vulnerability status and help to design both short and long term interventions options that are community specific as a way of enhancing their coping and adaptive capacity to disasters.