Coastal Vulnerability: Perception survey in Anlo Beach (Ghana), 2021

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The vulnerability of coastal territories has multiple dimensions, making it difficult to assess. One way of collecting data about the vulnerability of coastal areas is to interview people living on the coast. These communities have information on the coastal phenomena that occur on their territory and on the evolution over time of the frequency, intensity, and speed of progression of the pressures and pulses affecting them. They are the first observers of these phenomena. They are also the ones who suffer the consequences first, and who are most able to provide information on the impacts of coastal hazards on their territory. People living on the coast are also actors in their territory, where they carry out activities and development practices. Coastal communities, which are the focus of our survey, can therefore play four roles in the vulnerability of coastal socio-ecosystems: observers, impacted victims, agents of degradation, and agents of remediation. The consideration of these four roles is the basis for designing the current survey. The questionnaire is designed to be administered in several areas of the West African coastline. It is simple, accessible, and portable. In addition, it covers the major hazards, which are salinization, coastal erosion, flooding, plastic pollution, and oil pollution for cases in Senegal and Ghana. The second dimension that structured the questionnaire is an in-depth description of these major hazards. Thus, the questionnaire is designed as an appropriate tool for vulnerability assessment.

A pilot survey was conducted in the Anlo Beach community in the Western Region of Ghana to obtain information on risk perceptions. The survey targeted a sample of 156 respondents, with each respondent being an adult member (generally husband or wife) of a given household. To get the sample of households, a systematic sampling of every 5th household within the list of 740 enumerated households was carried out to ensure that the results that will be obtained from our survey will approximate what would have been obtained if the entire population had been surveyed. The interviews were conducted face-to-face in September and October 2021. Kobocollect software, installed on mobile phones, was used to conduct the interview. In most cases, responses provided to the questionnaire were used directly as binary or multi-modal variables.

This document method was developed as part of the West Africa Coastal Area – mapping Vulnerability, Adaptability and Resilience in changing climate (WACA-VAR) IRD project.

Survey Consent Protocol
In conducting the survey among the sampled household, first of all the surveyor presented himself as being in charge of a strictly scientific task for University. He announced that the data collected would never be used or disseminated in its nominative form. Despite the absence of an explicit consent document, the respondents agreed to participate on the basis of this short presentation of purpose and conditions of the survey.