The Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on Households’ Vulnerability to Climate Change in Semiarid Towns of Mopani, South Africa

Abstract

The changing climate and its current rate, frequency, as well as its life-threatening impacts are undoubtedly abnormal and globally worrisome. Its effects are expected to be severely different across segments of the society. It is disposed to leaving no facet of human endeavor immune, particularly in vulnerable cities of developing countries where there is dearth of empirical studies. For the context-specific nature of climate change impacts and place-based character of vulnerability, this study explores the influence of socioeconomic attributes on household vulnerability in Mopani District northeast of South Africa to provide basis for targeting, formulating, evaluating, and monitoring adaptation policies, programs, and projects. The study adopted a multistage random sampling to draw 500 households from six towns in Mopani District, Limpopo Province. Mixed methods approach was used for data collection, while Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) was estimated using principal component analysis and regressed with socioeconomic attributes. The study reveals that climate is changing with high HVI across selected towns. It further depicted that age and marital status have positive and significant relationships with HVI, while gender and educational levels have inverse and significant relationship with HVI in some towns. The study recommends the need for municipalities to partner with private sector to empower household and mainstream micro level coping strategies in urban planning across the district.

Keywords

• socioeconomic
• household vulnerability
• climate change impacts
• semi-arid towns