Assessing the Livelihood Vulnerability of Farmers to Floods (Case Study: Lorestan Province)

Floods are one of the natural hazards that in some cases lead to destructive phenomena and leave terrible social, economic and health effects. Meanwhile, rural communities are more vulnerable to climate change due to their livelihoods. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the livelihood vulnerability of farmers to floods in Lorestan province. The statistical population of this research includes all heads of flooded rural households in the three counties of Khorramabad, Chegani and Pol-e Dokhtar of Lorestan province, which according to the reports of the Agricultural Jihad of Lorestan province, their number was considered to be 6755. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size of 308 households was determined. Probability sampling with a systematic random method was used to select the samples. In this research, the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) was used to calculate the livelihood vulnerability of rural households to floods. The results showed that the flood-affected farmers in the villages of Pol-e Dokhtar county have higher livelihood vulnerability compared to Chegani and Khorramabad counties. In Pol-e Dokhtar county, indicators of livelihood strategy, social networks, knowledge-information, and health showed a higher value than the other two cities; This means that Poldekhter city has a higher vulnerability in these indicators. According to the results obtained from this research, solutions have been presented to manage flood risk and crisis in rural communities.