Risk-Informed Sustainable Development in the Rural Tropics

Dear Colleagues,

Efforts to achieve sustainable rural development are often thwarted by hydroclimatic disasters (droughts, flooding, storms, typhoons) which local communities are little prepared to tackle. Understanding these disasters, improving preparation, and strengthening governance have become equal priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) (2015). In recent years, however, the implementation of actions at local scale to achieve the objectives of the Sendai framework has come across innumerable obstacles. It is often the case that agricultural practices and local planning are not very risk-informed. Climatic information is absent or not accessible locally. Early warning systems and climate services are not constructed with and for the rural communities. Vulnerability and risk assessments are misaligned with risk prevention and preparedness local plans. Finally, the frequency and nature of DRR mainstreaming in municipal development plans is actually unknown. These deficiencies are particularly acute in the Tropics, where the majority of least developed countries are located and where there is, however, great potential for agricultural development.

As a consequence, this Special Issue is focused on rural Tropics, involving the local administrative level (individual municipalities and individual rural communities) and local scale (associations of smallholder farmers, groupings of specialist producers, cooperatives).

Our aim is to investigate information on the hydroclimatic risks (production, organization, accessibility) and the use of that information in agricultural practices and in local planning. We seek studies of individual cases (best practices), critical reviews, and theoretical papers originating from different academic fields dealing with a variety of topics, including:

• Open data on disasters;
• Non-stationary approaches to floods;
• Local climate scenarios;
• Early warning systems;
• Multihazard risk assessments for local planning;
• Hydroclimatic risk prevention, development plans, and aid at local scale;
• Capacity building for co-development of weather and climate services;
• Agrometeorological services for small farmers;
• Crop monitoring for food security;
• Climate change opportunities in agriculture.

References:

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Prof. Dr. Maurizio Tiepolo
Dr. Vieri Tarchiani
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Pezzoli
Guest Editors

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• climate services
• disaster risk reduction
• drought
• early warning systems
• emergency plans
• flooding
• local development plans
• loss and damages open data
• multihazard
• risk assessment
• risk prevention
• risk reduction plans
• vulnerability assessment