Socio-Economic Resilience to Floods in Coastal Areas of Thailand

Abstract

Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat are two coastal provinces in Thailand facing substantial threats from climate change induced hydrometeorological hazards, including enhanced coastal erosion and flooding. Human populations and livelihoods in these coastal provinces are at greater risk than those in inland provinces. However, little is known about the communities’ resilience and coping capacities regarding hydrometeorological hazards of varying magnitudes. The study conducted a quantitative socio-economic assessment of how people in Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces manage and respond to hydrometeorological hazards, examining their resilience and coping capacities. This was a cross-sectional study based on secondary data collection on the social and economic dimensions of resilience, and a review of literature on coping mechanisms to hydrometeorological hazards within the study area. Measuring and mapping socio-economic resilience was based on the available data gathered from the social and economic dimensions, with existing or standard indicators on exposure and vulnerability applied uniformly across subdistricts. A combination of social and economic dimensions produced novel socio-economic resilience index scores by subdistrict, which were mapped accordingly for the two coastal provinces. The study also derived a coping capacity index scores by combining availability of skills or soft capacity and availability of structural resources or hard coping capacity. Socio-economic resilience index scores varied greatly amongst subdistricts. Combining the soft and hard coping capacities, the average score across districts in both provinces was 3 out of a possible 4, meaning that most of the districts were largely resilient. However, variations also existed by subdistrict. Few subdistricts in both Krabi and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces had low coping capacity index scores between 1 and 2 out of 4. District averages of socio-economic resilience scores mask the variations at subdistrict level. More studies with rigorous methodologies at village or neighborhood level is needed to obtain a nuanced understanding of community resilience to hydrometeorological hazards.