TITLE:
Community Based Flood Risk Management: Local Knowledge and Actor’s Involvement Approach from Lower Karnali River Basin of Nepal
AUTHORS:
Rabin Sharma
KEYWORDS:
Community-Based Flood Risk Management, Local Knowledge, Social Capital Theory, Nepal
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
17,
2021
ABSTRACT: Connecting to the
disaster risk reduction (DRR) studies, community-based initiatives are found to
be more effective in both developed and developing countries, with a specific
focus on the empowerment of local communities to build resilience. Building on
social capital theory, the paper investigates on local knowledge (LK) practices
experienced by the actors in an emerging economy using the community-based
flood risk management (CB-FRM) approach. The qualitative research method was
used by collecting data from focused group discussions, and interviews with the
key informants including actors from local governments and non-government
organizations. Additionally, informal discussions, field visits, and desk
studies were undertaken to support the findings. The findings reveal that the
local communities carry out various local knowledge experiences to respond
during disaster management phases. They own a creative set of approaches based
on the LK and that empowers them to live in the flood-prone areas, accepting the
paradigm shift from fighting with floods to living with that. The local actor’s
involvement is recognized as an essential component for CB-FRM activities. Yet,
their program’s implementation is more oriented towards humanitarian assistance
in emergency responses. Even, they often overlook the role of LK. Additionally,
the results show a high level of presence of local communities during the
preparedness and recovery phases, while NGOs and local governments have a
medium role in preparedness and low in recovery phase. The lack of local
ownership has also emerged as the major challenge. The research provides
valuable insights for integrated CB-FRM policies by adopting to LK practices.