Culture system and social resilience to flood impacts - An investigation of Achang communities in Yunnan, China
Authors: Ai Mei , Yang Liang Emlyn , Zhou Qiong 
Published: March 2024

Existing&#160;research has provided evidence on how culture mediates disasters and exacerbates or mitigates their impact in various contexts but is often concentrated among popular cultural heritage&#160;or large scale culture phenomena. The significance of culture belonging to indigenous communities is less studied&#160;in mainstream climate change adaptation, despite its&#160;importance in helping build local&#160;social resilience&#160;to climate impacts. An&#160;Achang indigenous settlement located in the western part of China's Yunnan Province, where intense flash floods occurred frequently in its history, was used as a case study. The study aims&#160;to excavate the flood culture within the Achang community and examine how culture, particularly religion, blood-related organization, indigenous knowledge, and customary law have helped Achang communities for generations to build coping strategies to flood events. Data was gathered using participant observations in community activities, semi-structured interviews, more open thematic conversations, and document review in July 2023. Respondents included survivors for the storytelling, households for the semi-structured interview, and officers of the local authorities for the key informant interviews. The study found that the Achang community has a rich flood culture, which profoundly influences the behavior of the local people during flood events. First, the Achang people are culturally rooted in Buddhist&#160;tradition&#160;of nature worship and&#160;an&#160;equanimity view of living, forming an environmentally friendly community and&#160;providing a refuge for the spirit. Second, self-organization forms based on geography and kinship plays an important role in responding swiftly and maintaining long-term collaboration in times of flood. Thirdly, the Achang people's acquisition of ecological knowledge from nature has heightened their sensitivity to natural phenomena,&#160;enabling them to skillfully leverage their environment for home transformation and effective flood response. Finally, The Achang community is governed by a number of customary laws concerning flood prevention, which call on villagers to preserve forests, conserve soil and water, and contribute to post-disaster reconstruction for the common good. All of above&#160;provides an adaptable&#160;culture&#160;system from values-knowledge-institutions-practice&#160;with a strong&#160;ecological&#160;view and that is flexible enough to accommodate&#160;the adjustments needed to respond to changes.&#160;The relocation case in the Achang community illustrates that scientific disaster reduction decisions need to consider local&#160;flood culture to establish effective interventions in indigenous flood hotspots, further becoming the foundation for community resilience. As such, greater effort should be made by the State to full-scale investigations of these cultural, and the participation of indigenous flood culture in the planning and implementation of disaster risk reduction intervention.