Vulnerability assessments can play a vital role in the designing of appropriate
adaptation and mitigation policies targeted towards climate change and its impacts
on ecosystems, and for those who depend upon the sensitive resources for
their livelihoods and well-being. Vulnerability is often reflected in the economic
system as well as the socio-economic features of the population living in that
system. The current article attempts to build a picture of the socio-economic
context of vulnerability by focusing on indicators that measure both the state
of socio-economic development of the people as well as their capacity to
progress further. The result of agricultural vulnerability index suggests indicators
like cropping intensity, gross irrigated area and commercial crop area are the
major drivers in determining the vulnerability of the districts of Karnataka. The
socio-economic and livelihood index depicts indicators like per capita income,
population density and percentage of literacy rate are the major drivers and
contribute to the overall livelihood vulnerability of districts.