Measuring the farmers’ vulnerability to climate change in Tashk and Bakhtegan Lakes in Iran

ABSTRACTThis study used a descriptive-analytical method to assess how vulnerable farmers in Fars Province's rural regions near the Tashk and Bakhtegan lakes are to the effects of climate change. For this purpose, 17 villages around Tashk and Bakhtegan lakes with 2511 households, who are engaged in agricultural activities, were investigated. To achieve the research goals, a broad range of indexes were determined with the dimensions of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to climate change according to the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) and were evaluated in the field studies. According to the results, 52.93% of communities were highly vulnerable to climate change. On the other hand, only 23.52% of farmers had very low vulnerability, and 23.52% had moderate vulnerability. The local farmers were aware of the climate change in the studied region with an average of 4.56. Given that more than half of the villagers are highly vulnerable to climate change, the government and relevant institutions need to increase their resilience to vulnerability. Increasing vulnerability requires careful measurement and monitoring of all related variables, increasing adaptation to the generalization of insurance, access to facilities, and reducing climatic sensitivities by increasing livelihood diversification, reducing unemployment, and using drought-resistant plants.KEYWORDS: Vulnerabilityadaptive capacitysensitivityexposuredescriptive-analytical approach AcknowledgementsJ. M. J.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing Original Draft, Visualization. J. M. J. and M. H. P.: Supervision, Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing, Validation. M. H. P. and H. A.: Reviewing and Editing, Validation. H. A.: Supervision, Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing, Validation. M. G., A. I. Ö., and A. K.: Reviewing and Editing.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementRaw data were generated at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. We confirm that the data, models, or methodology used in the research are proprietary, and derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the first author on request.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJavad Masoumi JashniJavad Masoumi Jashni is a master's graduate in climatology. He received his master's degree from the University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Department of physical Geography. He chose the subject of his master's thesis: The degree of vulnerability of farmers around Tashk and Bakhtegan lakes.Mohsen Hamidian PourMohsen Hamidian Pour is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Geography at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan. He is interested in researching climate change and environmental changes. He is currently the head of the Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geography and Environmental Planning.Mehdi GhorbaniMehdi Ghorbani is the head of the group of environmental social scientists at the University of Tehran. His research focuses on natural resources engineering, resource management, and policy-making. His work addresses the complex interaction between society and the environment, with the aim of balancing the exploitation of natural resources and their preservation for future generations. His expertise extends to studying the impact of human activities on ecosystems and exploring techniques to mitigate environmental degradation.Ahsen Işık ÖzgüvenProf. Dr. Ahsen Işık Özgüven is vice Dean of faculty of agricultural sciences and technologies, head of department of plant production and technologies, Cyprus International University, Haspolat, Nicosia, North Cyprus, Turkey.Alishir KurbanProf. Dr. Alishir Kurban is a professor at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Science. His research interests include the application of remote sensing and geographic information technology in the field of arid environment and ecosystem research. He also tested new three dimensional modelling technology for archaeological site erosion research and three-dimensional change detection of arid land surfaces including vegetation above biomass changes.Hossein AzadiProf. Dr. Hossein Azadi is Associate professor at Economic and Rural Development, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Belgium. His research focuses mainly on “Land and Food” and policies in which he tries to understand the impacts of land governance, land tenure and property rights on agrarian change and food security using political economy theory and mixed-method (quantitative & qualitative) approach.