Co‑development of vulnerability and risk assessment framework and methodology for Nepal

Bimal Raj Regmi · Regan Sapkota · Apar Paudyal · Dilip Kumar Gautam · Rajan Thapa · Rojy Joshi · Smriti Shah · Gita G.C. · Bhogendra Mishra

Climate change has become one of the most urgent environmental challenges in the twenty-first century as it possesses various challenges to people’s livelihood, ecosystem, and other systems (Ma et al., 2017). In recent decades, climate change has impacted natural and human systems in all socio-economic sectors across ecological regions and geographic areas (Baker et al., 2012; Shi, 2018; Tol, 2020). The strongest and the most comprehensive changes can be found in natural systems. Some impacts on human systems have also been attributed to varying degrees of climate change (IPCC, 2014). Nepal is considered one of the most risk countries, ranking tenth in terms of climate risk in Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index 2021 (Eckstein et al., 2021). The profound impacts of climate change are severe due to the country’s diverse topography and corresponding climatic variations, natural resource-based livelihoods, and resource constraints to manage the climate change impacts from climate extremes, hazards, and disasters (Rasul et al., 2020). The climatic impacts, losses, and damages resulting from it are unprecedented (MoFE, 2017; Rasul et al., 2020; Regmi et al., 2010; Shrestha & Aryal, 2011).