Risk Perception and Adaptation of Climate Change: An Assessment of Community Resilience in Rural Taiwan

Chun-Hsien Lai, Pi-Ching Liao, Szu-Hung Chen, Yung-Chieh Wang, Chingwen Cheng and Chen-Fa Wu
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Chun-Hsien Lai: Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan
Pi-Ching Liao: Department of Horticulture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan
Szu-Hung Chen: International Master Program of Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan
Yung-Chieh Wang: Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan
Chingwen Cheng: The Design School, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Chen-Fa Wu: Department of Horticulture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 402, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Over the last five decades, there has been a decline of rural communities in Taiwan due to urbanization expansion. In the past 10 years, the central government has implemented the Rural Regeneration Project (RRP) aimed at revitalization and sustainable development in rural Taiwan. During the project’s implementation, communities have faced several disasters as a result of climate change-induced extreme rainfall events. Perceptions and adaptation practices of climate change-induced extreme events are critical to community sustainability and resilience. The gap between perceived and actual risks that communities experience creates challenges for policy-makers in achieving sustainability goals. This study aims to evaluate the perceived climate change-induced flooding hazard perceptions compared to the scientific projection and actual hazard events in 287 rural communities implementing the RRP. This study revealed consistency in risk perception, in that communities facing high potential exposure to extreme rainfall showed higher awareness of various impacts of climate change. However, when comparing climate actions, communities exposed to low-potential hazard areas had a relatively higher degree of recognition of the benefits of adaptation to climate change. Moreover, 59 rural communities with low awareness and exposed to high potentials of extreme events were widely distributed among hills of western, southern, and northern Taiwan, where compound disasters such as mudslides can occur. This research suggests that there is a need to integrate climate change planning and work with communities to bridge the gap between perceived and actual climate risks. In particular, capacity training, counseling services, and implementation of adaptation practices should be integrated into institutional planning and management for providing assistance in disaster prevention, relief, and post-event restoration; also, encouraging climate actions can directly improve community resilience toward climate change. While investing in the sustainable development of rural communities is largely based on revitalizing economic development, this study revealed the link to ensure resilience and social-ecological sustainability in rural communities under climate change impacts.

Keywords: climate risk perception; climate actions; rural community resilience; rural sustainable development; disaster risk reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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