Diagnoses of the Adaptive Capacity of Urban Households to Floods: The Case of Dome Community in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

Abstract

Urban areas are adversely affected by climate change effects such as flooding and temperature increase, with developing countries being more susceptible to these effects. This paper therefore draws on the adaptive capacity framework to understand the determinants of the capacity of residents in an urban context to deal with floods. The determinants considered in the paper include knowledge and awareness, technology, infrastructure, institutions and economic resources. Using Dome in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana as a case study, a systematic random sampling technique was used to sample 371 respondents for the household questionnaire survey whilst institutional heads were purposively selected for in-depth interviews. The study revealed that flooding is the most prevalent climate related hazard in the study area. The study also established that the adaptive capacity of the people of Dome to floods is very low when all the determinants are taken into consideration; the awareness, ability and action dimensions with respect to wealth, gender and education categories are higher at all levels compared to the overall adaptive capacity. This is a clear indication that the determinants of the adaptive capacity are intertwined. Therefore, in order to ensure the presence of a high adaptive capacity in households of Dome to flood, all the determinants should be supported.