Universität zu Köln

Martin, Romina ORCID: 0000-0001-5321-000X, Linstaedter, Anja, Frank, Karin ORCID: 0000-0002-2769-0692 and Mueller, Birgit (2016). Livelihood security in face of drought - Assessing the vulnerability of pastoral households. Environ. Modell. Softw., 75. S. 414 - 424. OXFORD: ELSEVIER SCI LTD. ISSN 1873-6726

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Livestock grazing in drylands supports pastoral livelihoods but is facing multiple changes including shocks such as severe droughts. Herdsmen specifically cite drought events as a reason for the abandonment of their transhumance practices. The purpose of this study is to assess the relevance of drought as a driving force for losses of livelihood security leading to a specific systemic change households abandoning transhumant pastoralism. We present and apply a framework for systematic analyses of the social ecological functioning of pastoral resource use that consists of the following components: (1) A spatially-explicit social ecological model for analyzing the system dynamics, especially in face of severe drought in connection with other driving forces of variability, (2) an operationalized measure for assessing livelihood security, and (3) a strategy for systematic vulnerability assessments of pastoral households by scenario comparison. This approach is applied to the land use system of the transhumant pastoralists in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The results indicate that drought is the main threat to livelihood security in only a few cases, eventually forcing households to abandon their transhumant lifestyle. Instead, other (endogenous and exogenous) sources of variability were found to be the main driving force for vulnerability, depending on the household characteristics such as income needs and the level of pastoral mobility. We discuss implications on the role of severe drought in connection with other processes of global change such as social change and land use change for livelihood security in pastoral systems. Moreover, on the basis of these findings, we discuss how the relevance of shocks as a driving force of systemic changes in coupled human-nature-systems may be adequately explored. These conclusions concern the interplay of exogenous and endogenous factors, and unintended side-effects of intended changes. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Martin, Romina UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-5321-000X UNSPECIFIED Linstaedter, Anja UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Frank, Karin UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-2769-0692 UNSPECIFIED Mueller, Birgit UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-292602
DOI:	10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.10.012
Journal or Publication Title:	Environ. Modell. Softw.
Volume:	75
Page Range:	S. 414 - 424
Date:	2016
Publisher:	ELSEVIER SCI LTD
Place of Publication:	OXFORD
ISSN:	1873-6726
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CLIMATE-CHANGE; RAINFALL VARIABILITY; LAND-USE; MODEL; MANAGEMENT; LIVESTOCK; DYNAMICS; AFRICA; CONSTRAINTS; RANGELANDS Multiple languages Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/29260