Assessment of Climate Change Vulnerability of Hakha Township, Chin State, Myanmar 2017–2050: Scenarios for Resilience Building

Description: 

"This assessment analyses the vulnerability of the ecosystem, infrastructure, and socio-economic conditions in Hakha Township located in Chin State, Myanmar in relation to present and projected climatic conditions. It concludes that the current vulnerability of Hakha Township is high, and with the predicted changes in climate, decision makers in Hakha Township will need to plan for increased flash floods and landslides, strong winds, increased temperature, and erratic rainfall with greater amounts of rain within a shorter monsoon season. Based on these findings, required actions for building resilience over the medium to long term are proposed in this report. In 2017–18 the Myanmar Climate Change Alliance (MCCA), implemented by UNHabitat and UN-Environment, in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and in collaboration with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), conducted a detailed climate change vulnerability assessment of Hakha Township, which is located in the mountainous China State of Myanmar. Chin State spans 36,019 km2 and is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur to the north (Figure 1). The capital of the state is in Hakha and the population is approximately 478,801 as per the 2014 Census. The present study analyses current vulnerability and predicts future vulnerability of Hakha Township by projecting future changes in climate for a period up to 2050. On this basis, scenarios that describe the potential impact of climate change and adaptation solutions to avoid the worst-case future scenario are proposed. These solutions have been compiled after several consultations with local communities and decision makers following a bottom-up approach. The study also describes the expected outcomes and results, and priority activities identified by communities during the course of the assessment. We use downscaled climate projections that were developed using ICIMOD datasets at a 10 x 10 km grid for predicting climate change impacts for the period up to 2050. The projections show an increase in temperature by as much as 1.7°C in 2050. Rainfall patterns are also predicted to change, with a possible increase in total annual rainfall by 150–300 mm and a shortening of the rainy season that will bring more frequent heavy rainfall events..."

Source/publisher: 

HABITAT (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements)

Date of Publication: 

2019-06-24

Date of entry: 

2019-07-13

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Geographic coverage: 

    • Chin State

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

6.37 MB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good

Alternate URLs: