Adaptive capacity, adaptation strategies and migration in the Canadian Prairies during the Dirty Thirties: Lessons for drought-migration processes under future climate change

Abstract

This research examines the emergence of migration as a household adaptation strategy to drought in Alberta in the 1930s. Existing research on human migration in response to natural hazards tends to be limited in terms of empirical examples, particularly migration in response to climate stresses. The purpose of this study is to examine the detailed factors that influenced adaptive capacity and adaptation strategies of residents in south-eastern Alberta during the 1930s and to examine migration as one form of adaptation to drought. Data collection involved 37 in-depth semi-structured interviews in south-eastern Alberta and north-western Alberta, a literature review and archival data analysis. This study can help inform our understanding of future household vulnerability to drought in rural Alberta and migration as a potential adaptation strategy to climate change.